CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(l\/lonographs) 


ICIVIH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographles) 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibliographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  in  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


0 
D 

D 

D 
D 

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0 
D 
D 
D 

D 


D 


Coloured  covers  / 
Couverture  de  couleur 

Covers  damaged  / 
Couverture  endommag^e 

Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Couverture  restaur^  et/ou  pellicula 

Cover  title  missing  /  Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^ographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)  / 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 

Bound  with  other  material  / 
Reli^  avec  d'autres  documents 

Only  edition  available  / 
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I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge 
int^rieure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
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blanches  ajout^es  lors  d'une  restauration 
apparaissent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait 
possible,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  6\6  film^s. 

Additional  comments  / 
Commentaires  suppl^mentaires: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire  qu'il  lui  a 
6\6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
plaire qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du  point  de  vue  bibli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifk:ation  dans  la  m^tho- 
de  normale  de  filmage  sont  indiquds  ci-dessous. 

I     I   Coloured  pages  /  Pages  de  couleur 

I I   Pages  damaged  /  Pages  endommag6es 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
Pages  restaur^s  et/ou  pellicul^es 


0   Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed  / 
Pages  dteolor^s,  tachet^es  ou  piqu^es 

I      I   Pages  detached  /  Pages  d6tach6es 

h/J   Showthrough  /  Transparence 


D 
D 

0' 


D 


Quality  of  print  varies  / 
Quality  inigale  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material  / 
Comprend  du  materiel  suppl^mentaire 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  en-ata  slips, 
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possible  image  /  Les  pages  totalement  ou 
partiellement  obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une 
pelure,  etc.,  ont  6X6  film^s  k  nouveau  de  fagon  k 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 

Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 
discolourations  are  filmed  twice  to  ensure  the  best 
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colorations  variables  ou  des  decolorations  sont 
film^s  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la  meilleure  image 
possible. 


This  Kwn  is  flInMd  at  ttia  reduction  ratio  chaclcad  balow  / 

C*  documant  est  filing  au  taux  de  rMuction  indlqu*  cl-desaoua. 

lOx                           14x                          18x 

22x 

26x 

30x 

J 

12x 

16x 

20x 

24x 

28x 

32x 

Th«  copy  filmvd  hare  has  baan  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  ganarotity  of: 

Library  of  the  National 
ArchivM  of  Canada 

Tha  imagas  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possibia  eonsidaring  tha  condition  and  iagibiiity 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spacifications. 


Original  copies  in  printad  papar  eovara  ara  flimad 
beginning  with  tha  front  cowar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  iliustratad  improa- 
slon,  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  flimad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  iliustratad  impraa- 
sion,  and  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  iliustratad  impraaaion. 


Tha  last  racordad  frama  on  aach  microflcha 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  ^^  fmaaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  V  Imaaning  "END"), 
whichavar  applias. 

Maps,  platas,  charts,  ate.  may  ba  flimad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  lar  ja  to  ba 
antiraly  included  in  ona  axposura  ara  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  ss 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaire  film*  fut  reproduit  grice  A  la 
g4n*rosit*  de: 

La  bibliothiqua  dcs  Archival 
nationalai  du  Canada 

Les  images  suivantas  ont  *t*  reprodultes  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin.  compta  tenu  da  la  condition  st 
de  ia  nattetA  de  I'exempleire  film*,  at  an 
conformity  avac  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmaga. 

Lee  exempiaires  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papier  est  ImprimAe  sont  filmte  sn  commancant 
par  le  premier  plot  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
darniire  paga  qui  comporta  una  omprainta 
d'Impression  ou  d 'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  les  sutres  exempiaires 
originaux  sont  filmta  an  commandant  par  la 
pramiAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impreasion  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  derni*re  pege  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivsnts  spparattra  sur  ia 
derni*re  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  salon  la 
cas:  ia  symbols  — »  signifie  "A  SUiVRE ',  ie 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  plenches.  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  *tre 
filmte  A  des  taux  da  reduction  diffArents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
reproduit  en  un  soul  clichA,  il  est  filmA  A  partir 
de  i'sngie  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite. 
et  de  haut  en  bas.  en  prenent  le  nombre 
d'imeges  nAcessaira.  Las  disgrammes  suivsnts 
illustrent  la  mAthode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

MICROCOTY   RiSOlUTION  TIST  CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


IIS 
KS 
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2.8 

1 4.0 


2.2 


1.8 


A    APPLIED  IfVMGE 


1653   East   Main  Street 

Rochester,   New  York        1*609       USA 

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THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 


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ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  EDITION 

• 

VOLUME  11 

THE  CHRONICLES 

OF  AMERICA  SERIES 

ALLEN  JOHNSON 

EDITOR 

GERHARD  R.  LOMER 

CHARLES  W.  JEFFERYS 

ASSISTANT  EDITORS 


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WAMIN  FRAHKUN 

'From  the  punting  by  Ben)«iBm  mfan.  175».  Tbia  paioting  wm 
■tden  by  Major  John  Andrt.  a  Britl^iofficer  in  the  BcTolutionary 
War.  from  Fradclb'a  Lofp  in  I'^MpUa.  during  th«  British  oocu- 
patioB  of  the  city  {Vm-itp,  i«jPeanied  to  England  by  General 

Sir  Charles  Grey.    It "~'"*^)"  jJMIf'JM  ^  ^  ^^^  family  in 

England  until  1008.  when  it  w^lpMBjfc  United  SUtea  by  Earl 
Giey,  Governor-General  of  <MmSn,  i^NBw  in  the  White  Rouse. 
In  U»18  it  wai  photographed  for  Tkt  ^kmudet  of  Amsriea,  by  L.  C. 
Handy,  Washington. 


I 


THE  EVE  OF 
THE   REVOLUTION 

A  CHRONICLE  OF  THE 

BREACH  WITH  ENGLAND 

BY  CARL  BECKER 


LVXET 


NEW  HAVEN:  YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

TORONTO:  GLASGOW.  BROOK  &  CO. 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD   UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1918 


Copyright,  1918,  by  Yale  University  P>ea9 


,'•  1 


1 


PREFACE 

In  this  brief  sketch  I  have  chiefly  endeavored  to 
convey  to  the  reader,  not  a  record  of  what  men  did, 
but  a  sense  of  how  they  thought  and  felt  about 
what  they  did.    To  give  the  quality  and  texture 
of  the  state  of  mind  and  feeling  of  an  individual 
or  class,  to  create  for  the  reader  the  illusion  (not 
delusim,  O  able  Critic!)  of  the  intellectual  atmos- 
phere of  past  times,  I  have  as  a  matter  of  course 
introduced  many  quotations;  but  I  have  also  ven- 
tured to  resort  frequently  to  the  literary  device 
(this,  I  know,  gives  the  whole  thing  away)  of  tell- 
ing the  story  by  means  of  a  rather  free  paraphrase 
of  what  some  imagined  spectator  or  participant 
might  have  thought  or  said  about  the  matter  in 
hand.    If  the  critic  says  that  the  product  of  such 
methods  is  not  history,  I  am  willing  to  call  it 
by  any  name  that  is  better;  the  point  of  greatest 

relevance  being  the  truth  and  eflFectiveness  of  the 

vii 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


illusion  aimed  at— the  extent  to  which  it  repro- 
duces the  quality  of  the  thought  and  feeling  of 
those  days,  the  extent  to  which  it  enables  the 
reader  to  enter  into  such  states  of  mind  and  feel- 
ing. The  truth  of  such  history  (or  whatever  the 
critic  wishes  to  call  it)  cannot  of  course  be  deter- 
mined by  a  mere  verification  of  references. 

To  one  of  my  colleagues,  who  has  read  the  entire 
manuscript,  I  am  under  obligations  for  many  sug- 
gestions and  corrections  in  matters  of  detail;  and  I 
would  gladly  mention  his  name  if  it  could  be  sup- 
posed that  an  historian  of  established  reputation 
would  wish  to  be  associated,  even  in  any  slight 
way,  with  an  enterprise  of  questionable  orthodoxy. 

Carl  Bbcker. 

Ithaca,  New  York, 
January  6,  1918. 


V 


CO    JENTS 


I.    A  PATRIOT  OF  1763 
II.    THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE 

III.  THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION 

IV.  DEFINING  THE  ISSUE 

V.    A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT 
VI.    TESTING  THE  ISSUE 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 
INDEX 


P«Ke      I 

"  li 

"  M 

"  m 

"  i.-.o 

"  xoo 

"  «7 

"  id  I 


' 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

From  the  pHintitiK  liy  IK-njmuin  Wibon.  I7fl», 
Thu  painting  wan  itulcu  by  Major  John  Andn-, 
a  Britinh  officer  in  the  Kevolutionary  War,  from 
Franklin'*  houM  in  PhikJelphia.  during  the 
Britiih  ocTUfiation  of  the  city  (1777-78),  and 
wa«  carri«:  to  England  by  (iencral  Sir  Charlea 
Grey.  It  remained  in  poMemion  of  the  Grey 
ftmi'y  in  England  until  1!>06,  when  it  waa 
restored  to  the  Lnited  Sutea  by  Earl  Grey, 
Governor-General  of  Cunadu,  and  hung  in  the 
White  Ilouie.  In  1818  it  waa  photographe.1  for 
Thi  ChromeU*  of  Ameriea.  by  L.  C.  Ilandy 
Waahington.  'fronti^pi^ 

CIIARLESCARROLLOPCARROLLTON.  Paint- 
ing by  Thomaa  Sully.  1836. 

EDMUNDPEXDLETON.  Painting!,,  thecllcc- 
tion  of  the  Virginia  Hutorical  Society .  Hichmond. 


Va. 


Facing  page    M 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON.  IN  THE  UNIFX)RM 
OF  A  VIRGINIA  COLONEL 

Painting  by  Charlea  Willson  Peale.  1778.  The 
earliest  portrait  of  Washington  from  life.  In 
Washington  and  Lee  Inivcrsity,  Lexington, 
Va.  Reproduced  by  courtesy  of  the  Preaident 
of  the  University. 

JAMES  OTIS.     Painting  in  the  Old  State  House. 
Boaton. 

SAMUEL  ADAMS.     Painting  by  John  Singleton 
Copley . 

si 


7» 


76 


HI 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1  I 


THE  BLOODY  MASSACRE  IN  BOSTON  IN  1770 
ELgraving  by  Paul  Revere.    In  the  collection 


of  the  New  York  Hiatorical  Society. 


Facing  pagg  128 


Painting  by  Robert 


FRANCIS  HOPKINSON. 
Edge  Pine. 

JOHN  HANCOCK.     Painting  by  John  Singleton 
Copley. 


After  a  painting  by  C.  W. 


JOHN  DICKINSON. 
Peale,  1770. 

THOMAS    PAINE.     Contemporary    Engraving. 
Emmet  Collection,  New  York  Public  Library. 

CONGRESS  VOTING  INDEPENDENCE 

Painting  begun  by  Robert  Edge  Pine,  left  un- 
finiahed  at  hia  death  in  1788,  and  completed  by 
Edward  Savage.  It  was  painted  in  the  room 
where  the  event  which  it  depicts  took  place, 
and  many  of  the  portraits  were  painted  from 
life.  Sixteen  of  these  portraits  have  been 
identified  and  some  of  them  attributed  to  their 
respective  painters  by  Charles  Henry  Hart. 
See  the  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and 
Artkaology.  Vol.  29.  In  the  collection  of  the 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia.     ' 

DESK  ON  WHICH  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 
WROTE  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDE- 
PENDENCE 

To  which  is  attached  the  foUowing  certification  in 
Jefferson's  handwriting: 

Th.  Jefferson  gives  this  Writing  Desk  to  Joseph 
Coolidge,  Jun.  as  a  memorial  of  affection.  It  teas 
made  from  a  drawing  of  his  own.  by  Ben  Randall, 
cabinet  maker  of  Philadelphia,  icith  whom  he  first 
lodged  on  his  arrival  in  that  city  in  May.  1776.  and  is 


m 


S3i 


ei6 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


xiu 


1»  128 


m 


the  idmtieal  one  on  which  he  wrote  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Politics,  ae  well  as  Religion,  hat 
its  superstitions.  These,  gaining  strength  vnth  time, 
may,  one  day,  give  imaginary  value  to  this  relic, 
for  its  association  with  the  birth  of  the  Great  Charter 
of  our  Independence. 
Monticello.  Nov.  18, 1825. 
Photograph  from  the  original  objects  in  the 
Library  of  the  Department  of  State,  Washington.  Facing  page  25^ 


m 


Si6 


I 


THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


CHAPTER  I 


A   PATRIOT   OF    1763 

His  Majesty's  reign  ...    I  predict  wi:l  be  happy  and  truly 
srlorious.  —  Benjamin  Franklin. 

The  29th  of  January,  1757,  was  a  notable  day 
in  the  life  of  Ben  Franklin  of  Philadelphia,  well 
known  in  the  metropolis  of  America  as  printer 
and  politician,  and  famous  abroad  as  a  scientist 
and  Friend  of  the  Human  Race.  It  was  on  that 
day  that  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvam'a  commis- 
sioned him  as  its  agent  to  repair  to  London  in 
support  of  its  petition  against  the  Proprietors  of 
the  Province,  who  were  charged  with  having  "ob- 
stinately persisted  in  manacling  their  deputies 
[the  Governors  of  Pennsylvania]  with  instructions 
inconsistent  not  only  with  the  privileges  of  the 
people,  but  with  the  service  of  the  Crown."    We 

1 


2  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

may,  therefore,  if  we  choose,  imagine  the  philoso- 
pher on  that  day,  being  then  in  his  fifty-first  year, 
walking  through  the  streets  of  this  metropolis  of 
America  (a  town  of  something  less  than  twenty 
thousand  inhabitants)  to  his  modest  home,  and 
there  informing  his  "Dear  Debby"  that  her  hus- 
band, now  apparently  become  a  great  man  in  a 
small  world,  was  ordered  immediately  "home  to 
England." 

In  those  leisurely  days,  going  home  to  England 
was  no  slight  undertaking;  and  immediately,  when 
there  was  any  question  of  a  great  journey,  meant 
as  soon  as  the  gods  might  bring  it  to  pass.  "I 
had  agreed  with  Captain  Morris,  of  the  Pacouet 
at  New  York,  for  my  passage,"  he  writes  in  the 
Autobiography,  "and  my  stores  were  put  on  board, 
when  Lord  Loudoun  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  ex- 
pressl.v,  as  he  told  me,  to  endeavor  an  accommo- 
da*'  ^  between  the  Governor  and  the  Assembly, 
ciiat  his  Majesty's  service  might  not  be  obstructed 
by  their  dissentions. "  Franklin  was  the  very 
man  to  effect  an  accommodation,  when  he  set  his 
mind  to  it,  as  he  did  on  this  occasion;  but  "in  the 
mean  time,"  he  relates,  "the  Facquet  had  sailed 
with  my  sea  stores,  which  was  some  loss  to  me, 
and    my   only    recompence    was    his    Lordship's 


A  PATRIOT  OP  176S  S 

thanks  for  my  service,  all  the  credit  for  obtaining 
the  accommodation  falling  to  his  share. " 

It  was  now  war  time,  and  the  packets  were  at 
the  disposal  of  Lord  Loudoun,  commander  of  the 
forces  in  America.  The  General  was  good  enough 
to  inform  his  accommodating  friend  that  of  the 
two  packets  then  at  New  York,  one  was  given  out 
to  sail  on  Saturday,  the  12th  of  April  —  "but," 
the  great  man  added  very  confidentially,  "I  may 
let  you  know,  entre  nous,  that  if  you  are  there 
by  Monday  morning,  you  will  be  in  time,  but  do 
not  delay  longer. "  As  early  as  the  4th  of  April, 
accordingly,  the  provincial  printer  and  Friend  of 
the  Human  Race,  accompanied  by  many  neigh- 
bors "to  see  him  out  of  the  province,"  left  Phila- 
delphia. He  arrived  at  Trenton  "well  before 
night,"  and  expected,  in  case  "the  roads  were  no 
worse, "  to  reach  Woodbridge  by  the  night  follow- 
ing. In  crossing  over  to  New  York  on  the  Mon- 
day, some  accident  at  the  ferry  delayed  him, 
so  that  he  did  not  reach  the  city  till  nearly  noon, 
and  he  feared  that  he  might  miss  the  packet  after 
all  —  Lord  Loudoun  had  so  precisely  mentioned 
Monday  morning.  Happily,  no  such  thing!  The 
packet  was  still  there.  It  did  not  sail  that  day,  or 
the  next  either;  and  as  J^te  as  the  29th  of  April 


-■4 

M 


4  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Franklin  was  still  hanging  about  waiting  to  be  off. 
For  it  was  war  time  and  the  packets  waited  the 
orders  of  General  Loudoun,  who,  ready  in  prom- 
ises but  slow  in  execution,  was  said  to  be  "like  St. 
George  on  the  signs,  always  on  horseback  but 
never  rides  on. " 

Franklin  himself  was  a  deliberate  man,  and  at 
the  last  moment  he  decided,  for  some  reason  or 
other,  not  to  take  the  first  packet.     Behold  him, 
therefore,  waiting  for  the  second  through  the  month 
of  May  and  the  greater  part  of  June!     "This 
tedious  state  of  uncertainty  and  long  waiting," 
during  which  the  agent  of  the  Province  of  Penn- 
sylvania, running  back  and  forth  from  New  York 
to  Woodbridge,  spent  his  time  more  uselessly  than 
ever  he  remembered,  was  duly  credited  to  the 
perversity  of  the  British  General.    But  at  last 
they  were  off,  and  on  the  26th  of  July,  three  and  a 
half  months  after  leaving  Philadelphia,  Franklin 
arrived  in  London  to  take  up  the  work  of  his  mis- 
sion; and  there  he  remained,  always  expecting  to 
return  shortly,  but  always  delayed,  for  something 
more  than  five  years. 

These  were  giorious  days  in  the  history  of  Old 
England,  the  most  heroic  since  the  reign  of  Good 
Queen  Bess.    When  the  provincial  printer  arrived 


A  PATRIOT  OF  1768  9 

in  London,  the  King  and  the  politicians  had  already 
been  forced,  through  multiplied  reverses  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  to  confer  power  upon  William 
Pitt,  a  disagreeable  man  indeed,  but  still  a  great 
genius  and  War  Lord,  who  soon  turned  defeat 
into  victory.  It  was  th"  privilege  of  Franklin, 
here  in  the  capital  of  the  Empire,  to  share  the 
exaltation  engendered  by  those  successive  con- 
quests that  gave  India  and  America  to  the  little 
island  kingdom,  and  made  Englishmen,  in  Horace 
Walpole's  phrase,  "heirs  apparent  of  the  Romans." 
No  Briton  rejoiced  more  sincerely  than  this  pro- 
vincial American  in  the  extension  of  the  Empire. 
He  labored  with  good  will  and  good  humor,  and 
doubtless  with  good  effect,  to  remove  popular 
prejudice  against  his  countrymen;  and  he  wrote 
a  masterly  pamphlet  to  prove  the  wisdom  of  re- 
taining Canada  rather  than  Guadaloupe  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  confidently  assuring  his  readers 
that  the  colonies  would  never,  even  when  once 
the  French  danger  was  removed,  "unite  against 
their  own  nation,  which  protects  and  encourages 
them,  with  which  they  have  so  many  connections 
and  ties  of  blood,  interest,  and  affection,  and  which 
'tis  ^"11  known  they  all  love  much  more  than 
they  love  one  another. " 


•         THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

R-anklin.  at  least,  loved  Old  England,  and  it 
might  well  be  maintained  ai..t  these  were  the 
happiest  years  of  his  hf.     He  was  mentally  so 
cosmopohtan.  so  much  at  ease  in  the  world,  that 
here  in  London  he  readily  found  hims-"       hc;ne 
indeed.    The  business  of  his  partic         n.ission. 
strictly  attended  to.  occupied  no  great  part  of 
his  time.     He  devoted  long  days  to  his  beloved 
scientific  experiments,  and  carried  on  a  volumi- 
nous correspondence  with  David  Hume  and  Lord 
Karnes    and  with  many  other  men  of  note  in 
En^and.  France,  and  Italy.     He  made  journeys, 
to  Holland,  to  Cambridge,  to  ancestral  places  and 
the  homes  of  sm-viving  relatives;  but  mostly,  one 
may  imagine,  he  gave  himself  to  a  steady  flow  of 
that     agreeable  and  instructive  conversation"  of 
which  he  was  so  much  the  master  and  the  devotee 
He  was  more  famous  than  he  knew,  and  the  re- 
ception that  everywhere  awaited  him  was  flat- 
tering, and  as  agreeable  to  his  unwarped  and 
emancipated   mind  as  it  was   flattering.     "The 
regard  and  friendship  I  meet  with."  he  confesses, 
and  the  conversation  of  ingemous  men.  give 
me  no  small  pleasure";  and  at  Cambridge,  "my 
vamty  was  not  a  little  gratified  by  the  particular 
regard  shown  me  by  the  Chancellor  and  Vice- 


/ 


A  PATRIOT  OF  1788  7 

Chancellor  of  the  University,  and  the  Heads  of 
the  Colleges. "  As  the  years  passed,  the  sense  of 
being  ut  ease  among  friends  grew  stronger;  the 
serene  and  placid  letters  to  "Dear  Debby"  be- 
came rather  less  frequent;  the  desire  to  return  to 
America  was  much  attenuated. 

How  delightful,  indeed,  was  this  Old  England! 
"Of  all  the  enviable  things  England  has,"  he  writes, 
"I  envy  it  most  its  people.  .  .  .  Why  should  this 
little  island  enjoy  in  almost  every  neighborhood 
more  sensible,  virtuous,  and  elegp'^t  minds,  than 
we  can  collect  in  ranging  one  hundred  leagues 
of  our  vast  forests?"  What  a  proper  place  for  a 
philosopher  to  spin  out  the  remnant  of  his  days! 
The  idea  had  occurred  to  him;  he  was  persistently 
urged  by  his  friend  William  Strahan  to  carry  it 
into  effect;  and  his  other  friend,  David  Hume, 
made  him  a  pretty  compliment  on  the  same 
theme:  "America  has  sent  us  many  good  things, 
gold,  silver,  sugar,  tobacco;  but  you  are  the  first 
philosopher  for  whom  we  are  beholden  to  her. 
It  is  our  own  fault  that  we  have  not  kept  him; 
whence  it  appears  that  we  do  not  agree  with 
Solomon,  that  wisdom  is  above  gold;  for  we  take 
good  care  never  to  send  back  an  ounce  of  the 
latter,  which  we  once  lay  our  fingers  upon. "    The 


I 

* 

r 

i 


i 


hi 


8  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

phUosopher  was  willing  enough  to  remain;  and  of 
the  two  objections  which  he  mentioned  to  Strahan. 
the  rooted  aversion  of  his  wife  to  embarking  on  the 
ocean  and  his  love  for  Philadelphia,  the  latter  for 
the  moment  clearly  gave  him  less  diflScuIty  than 
the  former.  "I  cannot  leave  this  happy  island 
and  my  friends  in  it  without  extreme  regret,"  he 
writes  at  the  moment  of  departure.  "I  am  going 
from  the  old  world  to  the  new;  and  I  fancy  I  feel 
like  those  who  are  leaving  this  world  for  the  next; 
grief  at  the  parting;  fear  of  the  passage;  hope  for 
the  future. " 

When,  on  the  1st  of  November,  1762,  Franklin 
quietly  slipped  into  Philadelphia,  he  found  that 
the  new  world  had  not  forgotten  him.    For  many 
days  his  house  was  filled  from  morning  till  mght 
with  a  succession  of  friends,  old  and  new,  come  to 
congratulate  him  on  his  return;  excellent  people 
all.  no  doubt,  and  yet  presenting,  one  may  suppose, 
a  rather  sharp  contrast  to  the  "virtuous  and  ele- 
gant minds"  from  whom  he  had  recently  parted 
in  England.     The  letters  he  wrote,  immediately 
following  his  return  to  America,  to  his  fiiends 
William  Strahan  and  Mary  Stevenson  lack  some- 
thing of  the  cheerful  and  contented  good  humor 
which  is  Franklin's  most  characteristic  tone.    His 


A  PATRIOT  OF  1763  9 

thoughts,  like  those  of  a  homesick  man,  are  ever 
dwelling  on  his  English  friends,  and  he  still  nour- 
ishes the  fond  hope  of  returning,  bag  and  baggage, 
to  England  for  good  and  all.  The  very  letter 
which  he  hogins  by  relating  the  cordiality  of  his 
reception  in  Philadelphia  lie  closes  by  assuring 
Strahan  that  "in  two  years  at  fartl.  rest  I  hope 
to  settle  all  my  affairs  in  such  manner  as  that 
I  may  then  conveniently  remove  to  England  — 
provided,"  he  adds  as  an  afterthought,  "we  can 
persuade  the  good  woman  to  cross  the  sea.  That 
will  be  the  great  difficulty." 

It  is  not  known  whether  it  was  this  difficulty 
that  prevented  the  eminent  doctor,  revered  in  two 
continents  for  his  wisdom,  from  changing  the  place 
of  his  residence.    Dear  Debby,  as  docile  as  a  child 
in  most    respects,  very    likely    had    her   settled 
prejudices,  of  which  the  d  sire  to  remain  on  dry 
land  may  have  been  one,  and  one  of  the  most  ob- 
stinate.   Or  it  may  be  that  Franklin  found  him- 
self too  much  occupied,  too  much  involved  in 
affairs  after  his  long  absence,  to  make  even  a 
beginmng  in  his  cherished  plan;  or  else,  as  the 
months  passed  and  he  settled  once  more  to  the 
familiar,  humdrum  life  of  the  Americ..:i  metropolis, 
sober  second  thought  may  have  revealed  to  him 


1 


10        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

That  was  doubtleu  a  higher  wisdom.  "Business, 
pubh'*  and  private,  devours  my  time,"  he  writes 
in  ^  rch,  1764.  "I  must  return  to  England  for 
.  .  jse.  With  such  thoughts  I  flatter  myself,  aid 
need  some  kind  friend  to  put  me  often  in  mind 
that  old  trees  cannot  safely  be  transplanted."  Per- 
haps, after  ail,  Dear  Debby  was  this  kind  friend; 
in  which  case  Americans  must  all,  to  this  day,  be 
much  indebted  to  the  good  woman. 

At  least  it  was  no  apprehension  of  difliculties 
arising  between  England  and  the  colonies  that 
induced  Franklin  to  remain  in  America.  The 
Peace  of  Parii  he  regarded  as  "tho  most  advan- 
tageous "  of  any  recorded  in  British  annals,  very 
fitting  to  mark  the  close  of  a  successful  war,  and 
well  suited  to  usher  in  the  long  period  of  prosperous 
felicity  which  should  properly  distinguish  the  reign 
of  a  virtuous  prince.  Never  before,  in  Franklin's 
opim'on,  were  the  relations  between  Britain  and 
her  colonies  more  happy;  and  Iht.t  could  be,  he 
thought,  no  good  reason  to  fear  that  the  excellent 
young  King  would  be  distressed,  or  his  prerogative 
diminished,  by  factitious  parliamentary  opposition. 

You  now  fear  for  our  virtuous  young  King,  that  the 
faction  forming  will  overpower  him  and  render  his 
reign  uncomfortable  [he  writes  to  Strahan].     On  the 


A  PATRIOT  OP  1768  n 

contrary,  I  am  of  opinion  that  his   virtue  and   the 
conaciouMcss  of  his  sincere  intentions  to  make  hin 
people  happy  will  ijive  him  firmness  und  steadiness  in 
hii  measures  and  in  the  supjiort  of  the  honest  friends 
he  h-s  chosen  to  serve  him,  and  when  that  firmness  is 
fully  perceived,  faction  will  dissolve  and  be  dissipated 
hke  a  morning  fog  before  the  rising  sun,  leaving  the 
rest  of  the  day  clear  with  a  sky  serene  and  cloudles. 
Such  u..er  a  few  of  the  first  years  will  be  the  future 
course  of  his  Majesty's  reign,  which  I  predict  will  be 
hoppy  and  truly  glorious.    A  new  war  I  cannot  yet  see 
reason  to  apprehend.     The  peace  will  I  think  long  con- 
tmue,  and  your  nation  be  aa  happy  as  they  deserve 
to  be. 


IfA,, 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  BURDEN   OF   EMPIRE 

Nothing  of  note  in  Parliament,  except  one  slight  day  on  the 
American  taxes.  —  Horace  Walpole. 

There  were  plenty  of  men  in  England,  any  time 
before  1763,  who  found  that  an  excellent  arrange- 
ment which  permitted  them  to  hold  office  in  the 
colonies  while  continuing  to  reside  in  London. 
They  were  thereby  enabled  to  make  debts,  and 
sometimes  even  to  pay  them,  without  troubling 
much  about  their  duties;  and  one  may  easily  think 
of  them,  over  their  claret,  as  Mr.  Trevelyan  says, 
lamenting  the  cruelty  of  a  secretary  of  state  who 
hinted  that,  for  form's  sake  at  least,  they  had 
best  show  themselves  once  in  a  while  in  America. 
They  might  have  replied  with  Junius:  "It  was 
not  Virginia  that  wanted  a  governor,  but  a  court 
favoritt'  that  wanted  a  salary."  Certainly  Vir- 
ginia could  do  with  a  minimum  of  royal  officials; 
but  most  court  favorites  wanted  salaries,  for  with- 

12 


i:.*'i, 


1 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  13 

out  salaries  unendowed  gentlemen  could  not  con- 
veniently live  in  London. 

One  of  these  gentlemen,  in  the  year  1763,  was 
Mr.  Grosvenor  Bedford.    He  was  not,  to  be  sure,  a 
court  favorite,  but  a  mr.n,  now  well  along  in  years, 
who  had  long  z^o  heca  appointed  to  be  Collector 
of  the  Custon  s  at  the  port  jf  Philadelphia.    The 
appointment  had  been  ma<  e  by  the  great  minister, 
Robert  Walpole,  for  whom  Mr.  Bedford  had  un- 
questionably done  some  service  or  other,  and  of 
whose  son,  Horace  Walpole,  the  letter-writer,  he 
had  continued  from  that  day  to  be  a  kind  of 
dependent  or  protege,  being  precisely  the  sort  of 
unobtrusive  factotum  which  that  fastidious  eccen- 
tric needed  to  manage  his  mundane  aflFairs.    But 
now,  after  this  long  time,  when  the  King's  business 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  George  Grenville,  who 
entertained  the  odd  notion  that  a  Collector  of 
the  Customs  should  reside  at  the  port  of  entry 
where  the  customs  were  collected  rather  than  in 
London  where  he  drew  his  salary,  it  was  being 
noised    about,    and    was    presently   reported   at 
Strawberry  Hill,  that  Mr.  Bedford,  along  with 
many  other  estimable  gentlemen,  was  forthwith 
to  be  turned  out  of  his  office. 
To  Horace  Walpole  it  was  a  point  of  more  than 


1 

3 


14        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

academic  importance  to  know  whether  gentlemen 
were  to  be  unceremoniously  turned  out  of  their 
offices.     As  far  back  as  1738,  while  still  a  lad,  he 
had  himself  been  appointed  to  be  Usher  of  the 
Exchequer;  and  as  soon  as  he  came  of  age,  he  says, 
"I  took  possession  of  two  other  little  patent  places 
in  the  Exchequer,  called  Comptroller  of  the  Pipe, 
and  Clerk  of  the  Estreats"  —  all  these  places  hav- 
ing been  procured  for  him  through  the  generosity 
of  his  father.     The  duties  of  these  offices,  one  may 
suppose,  were  not  arduous,  for  it  seems  that  they 
were  competently  administered  by  Mr.  Grosvenor 
Bedford,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as  Collector  of 
the  Customs  at  the  port  of  Philadelphia;  so  well 
administered,  indeed,  that  Horace  Walpole's  in- 
come from  them,  which  in  1740  was  perhaps  not 
more  than  £1500  a  year,  nearly  doubled  in  the 
course  of  a  generation.      And  this  income,   to- 
gether wit]    another  thousand  which  he  had  an- 
nually from  the  Collector's  place  in  the  Custom 
House,  added  to  the  interest  of  £20,000  which  he 
had  inherited,  enabled  him  to  live  very  well,  with 
immense  leisure  for  writing  odd  books,  and  let- 
ters full  of  extremely  interesting  comment  on  the 
levity  and  low  aims  of  his  contemporaries. 
And  so  Horace  Walpole,  good  patron  that  he 


/ 


m, 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  15 

was  and  competent  letter-writer,  very  naturally, 
hearing  that  Mr.  Bedford  was  to  lose  an  oflice  to 
which  in  the  course  of  years  he  had  become  much 
accusto  ned,  sat  down  and  wrote  a  letter  to  Mr. 
George  Grenville  in  behalf  of  his  friend  and  serv- 
ant.   •'  Though  lam  sensible  I  have  no  pretensions 
for  asking  you  a  favour,  .  .  .  yet  I  flatter  myself  I 
shall  not  be  thought  quite  impertinent  in  interced- 
ing for  a  person,  who  I  can  answer  has  neither  been 
to  blame  nor  any  way  deserved  punishment,  and 
therefore  I  think  you.  Sir,  will  be  ready  to  save 
him  from  prejudice.     The  person  I  mean  is  my 
deputy,  Mr.  Grosvenor  Bedford,  who,  above  five 
and  twenty  years  ago,  was  appointed  Collector 
of  the  Customs  in  Philadelphia  by  my  father.     I 
hear  he  is  threatened  to  be  turned  out.     If  the 
least  fault  can  be  laid  to  his  charge,  I  do  not 
desire  to  have  him  protected.     If  there  cannot, 
I  am  too  well  persuaded,  Sir,  of  your  justice  not 
to  be  sur    .        will  be  pleased  to  protect  him. " 

George  v  ille,  a  dry,  precise  man  of  great 

knowledge  and  industry,  almost  always  right  in  lit- 
tle matters  and  very  patient  of  the  misapprehen- 
sions of  less  exact  people,  wrote  in  reply  a  letter 
which  many  would  think  entirely  adequate  to  the 
matter  in  hand: 


3 

n 


t         r 


16        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

I  have  never  heard  [he  began]  of  any  complaint  against 
Mr.  Grosvenor  Bedford,  or  of  any  desire  to  turn  him 
out;  but  by  the  oBSce  which  you  tell  me  he  holds  in 
North  America,  I  believe  I  know  the  state  of  the  case, 
which  I  will  inform  you  of,  that  you  may  be  enabled 
to  judge  of  it  yourself.     Heavy  complaints  were  last 
year  made  in  Parliament  of  the  state  of  our  revenues 
m  North  America  which  amount  to  between  £1,000 
and  £2,000  a  year,  the  collecting  of  which  costs  upon 
the  establishment  of  the  Customs  in  Great  Britain 
between  £7,000  and  £8,000  a  year.    This,  it  was  urged, 
arose  from  the  making  all  these  offices  sinecures  in 
England.     When  I  came  to  the  Treasury'  I  directed 
the  Commissioners  of  the  Customs  to  be  written  to, 
that  they  might  inform  us  how  the  revenue  might  be 
improved,  and  to  what  caus-is  they  attributed  the  pres- 
ent diminished  state  of  it.   .  .  .    Tht  principal  cause 
which  they  assigned  was  the  absence  of  the  officers 
who  lived  in  England  by  leav^eof  the  Treasury,  which 
they  proposed  should  be  recalled.     This  we  complied 
with,  and  ordered  them  all  to  their  duty,  and  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  Customs  to  present  others  in  the 
room  of  such  as  should  not  obey.     I  take  it  for  granted 
that  this  is  Mr.  Bedford's  case.    If  it  is,  it  will  be  at- 
tended with  difficulty  to  make  an  exception,  as  they 
are  every  one  of  them  applying  to  be  excepted  out  of 
the  orders.  ...     If  it  is  not  so,  or  if  Mr.  Bedford  can 
suggest  to  me  any  proper  means  of  obviating  it  with- 
out overturning  the  whole  regulation,  he  will  do  me  a 
sensible  pleasure. 

'On  the  resignation  of  Lord  Bute  in  April,  1763.  Grenville 
formed  a  ministry,  himself  taking  the  two  offices  of  First  Lord  of  the 
Treasury  and  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer. 


1:/ 


I  M  s 


I 


THE  BURDEN  OP  EMPIRE  17 

There  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  Mr.  Bed- 
ford was  able  to  do  Mr.  Grenville  this  "sensible 
pleasure. "     The  incident,  apparently  closed,  was 
one  of  many  indications  that  a  new  policy  for  deal- 
ing with  America  was  about  to  be  inaugurated; 
and  although  Grenville  had  been  made  minister 
for  reasons  thai  were  remote  enough  from  any 
question  of  efficiency  in  government,  no  better 
man  could  have   been   chosen   for  applying   to 
colonial    administration    the   principles    of   good 
business  management.     His  connection  with  the 
Treasury,   as   well  as  the  natural    bent    of    his 
mind,  had  made  him  "confessedly  the  ablest  man 
of  business  in  the  House  of  Commons."     The 
Governors  of  the  Bank  of  England,  very  efficient 
men  certainly,  held  it  a  great  point  in  the  minis- 
ter's favor  that  they  "could  never  do  business 
with  any  man  with  the  same  ease  they  had  done 
it  with  him."     Undoubtedly  the  first  axiom  of 
business  is  that  one's  accounts  should  be  kept 
straight,  one's  books  nicely  balanced;  the  second, 
that  one's  assets  should  exceed  one's  liabilities. 
Mr.  Grenville,  accordingly,  "had  studied  the  reve- 
nues with  professional  assiduity,  and  something 
of   professional    ideas    seemed    to   mingle   in   all 
his  regulations  concerning  them."    He  "felt  »he 


1 1 


18        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

weight  of  debt,  amounting  at  this  time  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  millions,  which  oppressed 
his  country,  and  he  looked  to  the  amelioration  of 
the  revenue  as  the  only  mode  of  relieving  it. " 

It  is  true  there  were  some  untouched  sources  of 
revenue  still  available  in  England.    As  sinecures 
went  in  that  day,  IVIr.  Grosvenor  Bedford's  was  not 
of  the  best;  and  on  any  consideration  of  the  matter 
from  the  point  of  view  of  revenue  only,  Grenville 
might  well  have  turned  h:^  attention  to  a  different 
class  of  officials;  for  example,  to  the  Master  of  the 
Rolls  in  Ireland,  Mr.  Rigby.  who  was  also  Pay- 
master of  the  Forces,  and  to  whose  credit  there 
stood  at  the  Bank  of  England,  as  Mr.  Trevelyan 
assures  us,  a  million  pounds  of  the  public  money, 
the  interest  of  which  was  paid  to  him  "or  to  his 
creditors. "    This  was  a  much  better  thing  than 
Grosvenor  Bedford  had  with  his  paltry  collector- 
ship  at  Philadelphia;  and  the  interest  on  a  million 
pounds,  more  or  less,  had  it  been  diverted  from 
Mr.  Rigby's  pocket  to  the  public  treasury,  would 
perhaps  have  equaled  the  entire  increase  in  the 
revenue  to  be  expected  from  even  the  most  effi- 
cient administration  of  the  customs  in  all   the 
ports  of  America.    In  addition,  it  should  perhaps 
be  said  that  Mr.  Rigby,  although  excelled  by  none, 


^ 


i  ,i^ 


^1      t 


TFE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  19 

was  by  no  means  the  only  man  'n  high  place  with 
a  good  degree  of  talent  for  exploiting  the  common 
chest. 

The  reform  of  such  practices,  very  likely,  was 
work  for  a  statesman  rather  than  for  a  man  of 
business.  A  good  man  of  business,  called  upon  to 
manage  the  King's  affairs,  was  likely  to  find  many 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  depriving  the  Paymaster 
of  the  Forces  of  his  customary  sources  of  income, 
and  Mr.  Grenville,  at  least,  never  attempted  any. 
thing  so  hazardous.  Scurrilous  pamphleteers,  in 
fact,  had  made  it  a  charge  against  the  minister 
that  he  had  increased  rather  than  diminished  the 
evil  of  sinecures— "It  had  been  written  in  pam- 
phlets that  £400,000  a  year  was  dealt  out  in  pen- 
sions"; from  which  charge  the  able  Chancellor,  on 
the  occasion  of  opening  his  first  budget  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  9th  of  March,  1764,  de- 
fended himself  by  denying  that  the  sums  were  "so 
great  as  alleged. "  It  was  scarcely  an  adequate 
defense;  but  the  truth  is  that  Grenville  was  sure 
to  be  less  distressed  by  a  bad  custom,  no  law  for- 
bidding, than  by  a  law,  good  or  bad,  not  strictly 
enforced,  particularly  if  the  law  was  intended  to 
bring  in  a  revenue. 

Instinctively,  therefore,  the  minister  turned  to 


t\ 


1 


M 


1 


i3 


1 


IK 


90        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

America,  where  it  was  a  notorious  fact  that  there 
were  revenue  laws  that  had  not  been  enforced 
these  many  years.  Mr.  Gren  ville,  we  may  suppose, 
since  it  was  charged  against  him  in  a  famous  epi- 
gram, read  the  American  dispatches  with  consider- 
able care,  so  that  it  is  quite  possible  he  may  have 
chanced  to  see  and  to  shake  his  head  over  the  sworn 
statement  of  Mr.  Sampson  Toovey,  a  statement 
which  throws  much  hght  upon  colonial  liberties 
and  the  practices  of  English  officials  in  those  days: 

I,  Sampson  Toovey  [so  the  statement  runs],  Clerk  to 
James  Cockle,  Esq.,  Collector  of  His  Majesty's  Cus- 
toms for  the  Port  of  Salem,  do  declare  on  oath,  that 
ever  since  I  have  been  in  the  oflSce,  it  hath  been  cus- 
tomary for  said  Cockle  to  receive  of  the  masters  of 
vessels  entering  from  Lisbon,  casks  of  wine,  boxes  of 
fruit,  etc.,  which  was  a  gratuity  for  suflFering  their  ves- 
sels to  be  entered  with  salt  or  ballast  only,  and  pass- 
mg  over  unnoticed  such  cargoes  of  wine,  fruit,  etc., 
which  are  prohibited  to  be  imported  into  His  Majesty's 
plantations.  Part  of  which  wine,  fruit,  etc.,  the  said 
James  Cockle  used  to  share  with  Governor  Bernard. 
And  I  further  declare  that  I  used  to  be  the  negotia- 
tor of  this  business,  and  receive  the  wine,  fruit,  etc., 
and  dispose  of  them  agreeable  to  Mr.  Cockle's  orders! 
^\ltness  my  hand.     Sampson  Toovey. 

The  curious  historian  would  like  much  to  know,  in 
case  Mr.  Grenville  did  see  the  declaration  of  Samp- 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  21 

son  Toovey,  whether  he  saw  also  a  letter  in  which 
Governor  Bernard  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  if 
the  colonial  governments  were  to  be  refashioned  it 
should  be  on  a  new  plan,  since  "there  is  no  system 
in  North  America  fit  to  be  made  a  module  of." 

Secretary  Grenville,  whether  or  not  he  ever  saw 
this  letter  from  Governor  Bernard,  was  familiar 
with  the  ideas  which  inspired  it.  Most  crown 
officials  in  A  .erica,  and  the  governors  above 
all,  finding  (h.  iselves  little  more  than  executive 
agents  of  the  colonial  assemblies,  had  long  clam- 
ored for  the  remodeling  of  colonial  governments: 
the  charters,  they  said,  should  be  recalled;  the 
iunctions  of  the  assemblies  should  be  limited 
and  more  precisely  defined;  judges  should  be  ap- 
pointed at  the  pleasure  of  the  King;  and  judges 
and  governors  alike  should  be  paid  out  of  a  per- 
manent civil  list  in  England  drawn  from  reve- 
nue raised  in  America.  In  urging  these  changes, 
crown  officials  in  America  were  powerfully  sup- 
ported by  men  of  influence  in  England;  by  Hali- 
fax since  the  day,  some  fifteen  years  before,  when 
he  was  appoinud  to  the  office  of  Colonial  Secre- 
tary; by  the  brilliant  Charles  Townshend  who, 
in  the  year  1763,  as  first  Lord  of  the  Treasury 
in  Bute's  ministry,  had  formulated  a  bill  which 


f; 


r 


8«  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
would  have  been  highly  pleasing  to  Goveroor 
Bernard  had  it  been  passed  into  law.  And  now 
similar  schemes  were  being  urged  upon  Grenville 
by  his  own  colleagues,  notably  by  the  Earl  of  Hali- 
fax, who  is  said  to  have  become,  in  a  formal  inter- 
view with  the  first  minister,  extremely  heated  and 
eager  in  the  matter. 

But  all  to  no  purpose.    Mr.  Grenville  was  well 
content  with  the  form  of  the  colonial  governments, 
being  probably  of  Pope's  opinion  that  "the  system 
that  is  best  administered  is  best. '     In  Grenville's 
opinion,  the  Massachusetts  government  was  good 
enough,  and  all  the  trouble  arose  from  the  inatten- 
tion of  royal  ofl5cials  to  their' manifest  duties  and 
from  the  pleasant  custom  of  depositing  at  Governor 
Bernard's  back  door  sundry  pipes  of  wine  with  the 
--^mpliments  of  Mr.  Cockle.    Most  men  in  England 
:^reed  that  such  pleasant  customs  had  been  toler- 
ated long  enough.     To  their  suppression  the  first 
minister  accordingly  gave  his  best  attention;  and 
while  Mr.  Rigby  continued  to  enjoy  great  perqui- 
sites in  England,  many  obscure  customs  officials, 
such  as  Grosvenor  Bedford,  were  ordered  to  their 
posts  to  prevent  small  peculations  in  America.     To 
assist  them,  or  their  successors,  in  this  business, 
ships  of  war  were  stationed  conveniently  for  the 


^i' 


I 

i 

I 

a 

I 
'3 


THE  BURl  F.N  OP  EMPIRE  «S 

intercepting  of  smugglers,  ger-'al  writs  were  au- 
thorized to  facilitate  the  sea  ^h  for  goods  ille- 
gally entered,  and  the  governors,  His  Excellency 
Governor  Bernard  among  the  number,  were  newly 
instructed  to  give  their  best  efforts  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  trade  acts. 

All  this  was  but  an  incident,  to  be  sure,  in  the 
minister's  general  scheme  for  "ameliorating  the 
revenue."  It  was  not  until  the  9th  of  March, 
1764,  that  Grenvillc,  "not  disguising  how  much 
he  was  hurt  by  abuse,"  opened  his  first  bud^'et. 
"fully,  for  brevity  was  not  his  failing,"  and  still 
with  great  "art  and  ability. "  Although  ministers 
were  to  be  congratulated,  he  thought,  "on  the 
revenue  being  managed  with  more  frugality  than 
in  the  late  reign, "  the  House  scarcely  need  be  told 
that  the  war  had  greatly  increased  the  debt,  an 
increase  not  to  be  placed  at  a  lower  figure  than 
some  seventy  odd  millions;  and  so,  on  account  of 
this  great  increase  in  the  debt,  and  in  spite  of 
gratifying  advances  in  the  customs  duties  and 
the  salutary  cutting  off  of  the  German  subsidies, 
taxes  were  now,  the  House  would  easily  under- 
stand, necessarily  much  higher  than  formerly  — 
"our  taxes,"  he  said,  "exceeded  by  three  millions 
what  they  were  in  1754."    Much  money,  doubtless. 


•♦        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

could  still  be  raised  on  the  land  tax,  it  the  House 
was  at  all  disposed  to  put  on  another  half  shil- 
ling in  the  pound.     Ministers  could  take  it  quite 
for  granted,  however,  that  country  squires,  sitting 
on  the  benches,  would  not  be  disposed  to  increase 
th.-  hind  tax.  but  would  much  i)refer  some  skillful 
manipulation  of  the  colonial  customs,  provided 
only  there  was  some  one  who  understood  that  art 
well  enough  to  explain  to  the  House  where  such 
duties  were  meant  to  fall  and  how  much  they  might 
reasonably  be  expected  to  bring  in.    And  there, 
m  fact,  was  Mr.  Grenville  explaining  it  all  with 
"art  and  ability."  for  which  task,  indeed,  there 
could  be  none  superior  to  his  Majesty's  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,  who  had  so  long  "studied  the 
revenue  with  professional  assiduity. " 

The  items  of  the  budget,  rather  dull  reading  now 

and  none  loo  illuminating,  fell  pleasantly  upon 

the  ears  of  country  squires  sitting  there  on  the 

benches;  and  the  particular  taxes  no  doubt  seemed 

reasonably  clear  to  them,  even  U  they  had  no 

perfect  understanding  of  the  laws  of  incidence, 

inasmuch  as  sundry  of  the  new  duties  apparently 

fell  upon  the  distant  Americans,  who  were  known 

to  be  rich  and  were  generally  thought,  on  no  less 

an  authority  than  Jasper  Mauduit,  agent  of  the 


'J 


^i 


m 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  25 

Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  to  be  easily  able 
and  not  unwillinj?  to  pay  considerable  sums  to- 
wards ameliorating  the  revenue.  It  was  odd, 
perhaps,  that  Americans  should  be  willing  to  pay; 
but  that  was  no  great  matter,  if  they  were  ubic, 
since  no  one  could  deny  their  obligation.  And  so 
country  squires,  and  London  merchants  too,  lis- 
tened comfortably  to  the  reading  of  the  budget  so 
well  designed  to  relieve  the  one  of  taxes  and  swell 
the  profits  flowing  into  the  coffers  of  the  other. 

That  a  duty  of  £2  19s.  9d.  per  cwt.  avoirdupois,  be 
laid  upon  all  foreign  coffee,  imported  from  any  i)lace 
(except  Great  Britain)  into  the  British  colonies  and 
plantations  in  America.  That  a  duty  of  6d.  per  pound 
weight  be  laid  upon  all  foreign  indico,  imported  into 
the  said  colonies  and  plantations.  That  a  duty  of  £7 
per  ton  be  laid  upon  all  wine  of  the  growth  of  the 
Madeiras,  or  of  any  other  island  or  place,  lawfully  im- 
ported from  the  respective  place  of  the  growth  of  such 
wine,  into  the  said  colonies  and  plantations.  That  a 
duty  of  10s.  per  ton  be  laid  upon  all  Portugal,  Spanish, 
or  other  wine  (except  French  wine),  imported  from 
Great  Britain  into  the  said  colonics  and  plantations. 
That  a  duty  of  is.  per  pound  weight  be  laid  upon  all 
wrought  silks.  Bengals,  and  stuffs  mixed  with  silk  or 
herba,  of  the  manufacture  of  Persia,  China,  or  East 
India,  imported  from  Great  Britain  into  the  said  colo- 
nies and  plantations.  That  a  duty  of  2s.  6d.  per  piece 
be  laid  upon  all  callicoes.  .... 


^t> 


■ 


I      t 


99        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

The  list  no  doubt  was  a  long  one;  and  quite  right, 
too,  thought  country  squires,  all  of  whom,  to  a 
man,  were  willing  to  pay  no  more  land  tax. 

Other  men  besides  country  squires  were  inter- 
ested in  Mr.  Grenville's  budget,  notably  the  West 
Indian  sugar  planters,  virtually  and  actually  rep- 
resented   in  the  House  of  Commons  and  voting 
*here  this  day.    Many  of  them  were  rich  men  no 
doubt;  but  sugar  planting,  they  would  assure  you 
in  confidence,  was  not  what  it  had  been;   and 
if  they  were  well  off  after  a  fashion,  they  might 
have  been  much  better  off  but  for  the  shameless 
frauds  which  for  thirty  years  had  made  a  dead 
letter  of  the  Molasses  Act  of  1733.    It  was  noto- 
rious that   the  merchants  of  the  northern  and 
middle  colonies,  regarding  neither  the  Acts  of 
Trade  nor  the  dictates  of  nature,  had  every  year 
carried  their  provisions  and  fish  to  the  foreign 
islands,  receiving  in  exchange  molasses,  cochineal, 
"medical  druggs,"  and  "gold  and  silver  in  bullion 
and  coin,"     With  molasses  the  thrifty  New  Eng- 
landers  made  great  quantities  of  inferior  rum,  the 
common  drink  of  that  day,  regarded  as  essential 
to  the  health  of  sailors  engaged  in  fishing  off  the 
Grand  Banks,  and  by  far  the  cheapest  and  most 
effective    instrument    for   procuring    negroes    in 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  87 

Africa  or  for  inducing  the  western  Indians  to 
surrender  their  valuable  furs  for  some  trumpery  of 
colored  cloth  or  spangled  bracelet.  All  this  thriv- 
ing traflSc  did  not  benefit  British  planters,  who  had 
molasses  of  their  own  and  a  superior  quality  of 
rum  which  they  were  not  unwilling  to  sell. 

Such  traflSc,  since  i*  did  not  benefit  them,  British 
planters  were  dispr  ^  to  think  must  be  bad  for 
England.  They  were  therefore  willing  to  support 
Mr.  Grenville's  budget,  which  proposed  that  the 
importation  of  foreign  rum  into  any  British  colony 
be  prohibited  in  future;  and  which  further  pro- 
posed that  the  Act  of  6  George  II,  c.  13,  be  con- 
tinued, with  modifications  to  make  it  effective,  the 
modifications  of  chief  importance  being  the  addi- 
tional duty  of  twenty-two  shillings  per  hundred- 
weight upon  all  sugar  and  the  reduction  by  one 
half  of  the  prohibitive  duty  of  sixpence  on  all  foreign 
molasses  imported  into  the  British  plantations.  It 
was  a  matter  of  minor  importance  doubtless,  but 
one  to  which  they  had  no  objections  since  the  minis- 
ter made  a  point  of  it,  that  the  produce  of  all  the 
duties  which  should  be  raised  by  virtue  of  the  said 
act,  made  in  the  sixth  year  of  His  late  Majesty's 
reign,  "be  paid  into  the  receipt  of  His  Majesty's 
Exchequer,  and  there  reserved,  to  be  from  time  to 


!    f 


I 


«8        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
time  disposed  of  by  Parliament,  towards  defraying 
the  necessary  expences  of  defending,  protecting, 
and  securing  the  British  colonies  and  plantations 
in  America. " 

With  singularly  little  debate,  honorable  and 
right  honorable  members  were  ready  to  vote  this 
new  Sugar  Act,  having  the  minister's  word  for  it 
that  it  would  be  enforced,  the  revenue  thereby 
much  improved,  and  a  sudden  stop  put  to  the  long- 
established  illicit  traffic  with  the  foreign  islands, 
a  traffic  so  beneficial  to  the  northern  colonies,  so 
prejudicial  to  the  Empire  and  the  pockets   of 
planters.    Thus  it  was  that  Mr.  Grenville  came 
opportunely  to  the  aid  of  the  Spanish  authorities, 
who  for  many  years  had  employf  '  their  guarda 
castas  in  a  vain  effort  to  suppress  t       /ery  traffic, 
conceiving  it,  oddly  enough,  to  I-     nurious  to 
Spain  and  highly  advantageous  to  ^      An. 

It  may  be  that  the  Spanish  authorities  regarded 
the  West  Indian  trade  as  a  commercial  system 
rather  than  as  a  means  of  revenue.  This  aspect 
of  the  matter,  the  commercial  effects  of  his  meas- 
ures, Mr.  Grenville  at  all  events  managed  not  to 
take  sufficiently  into  account,  which  was  rather 
odd,  seeing  that  he  professed  to  hold  the  commer- 
cial system  embodied  in  the  Navigation  and  Trade 


SJ 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  20 

Acts  in  such  high  esteem,  as  a  kind  of  "English 
Palladium. "    No  one  could  have  wished  less  than 
Grenville  to  lay  sacrilegious  hands  on  this  Palla- 
dium, have  less  intended  to  throw  sand  into  the 
nicely  adjusted  bearings  of  the  Empire's  smoothly 
working  commercial  system.    If  he  managed  never- 
theless to  do  something  of  this  sort,  it  was  doubt- 
less by  virtue  of  being  such  a  "good  man  of  busi- 
ness," by  virtue  of  viewing  the  art  of  government 
too  narrowly  as  a  question  of  revenue  only.     For 
the  moment,  preoccupied  as  they  were  with  the 
quest  of  revenue,  the  new  measures  seemed  to 
Mr.  Grenville  and   to  the  squires  and  planters 
who  voted  them  well  adapted  to  raising  a  mod- 
erate sum,  part  only  of  some  £350,000,  for  Ue  just 
and  laudable  purpose  of  "defraying  the  necessary 
expences  of  defending,  protecting,  and  securing 
the  British  colonies  and  plantations  in  America. " 
The  problem  of  colom'al  defense,  so  closely  con- 
nected with  the  question  of  revenue,  was  none 
of  Grenville's  making  but  was  a  legacy  of  the 
war  and  of  that  Peace  of  Paris  which  had  added 
an  immense  territory  to  the  Empire.     When  the 
diplomats  of  England  and  France  at  last  dis- 
covered, in  some  mysterious  manner,  that  it  had 
"pleased  the  Most  High  to  diflFuse  the  spirit  of 


1 


I  ' 


n 


I  1 

f 


1        } 


5  I 


^    « 


5^ 


80        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
union  and  concord  among  the  Princes,"  the  world 
was  informed  that,  as  the  price  of  "a  Christian, 
universal,  and  perpetual  peace,"  France  would 
cede  to  England  what  had  remained  to  her  of 
Nova  Scotia,  Canada,  and  all  the  possessions  of 
France  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Mississippi  except 
the  City  of  New  Orleans  and  the  island  on  which 
it  stands;  that  she  would  cede  also  the  islands  of 
Grenada  and  the  Grenadines,  the  islands  of  St. 
Vincent,  Dominica,  and  Tobago,  and  the  River 
Senegal  with  all  of  its  forts  and  factories;  and  that 
she  would  for  the  future  be  content,  so  far  as  her 
activities  in  India  were  concerned,  with  the  five 
factories  which  she  possessed  there  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  year  1749. 

The  average  Briton,  as  well  as  honorable  and 
right  honorable  members  of  the  House,  had  known 
that  England  possessed  colonies  and  had  under- 
stood that  colonies,  as  a  matter  of  course,  existed 
to  supply  him  with  sugar  and  rice,  indigo  and 
tobacco,  and  in  return  to  buy  at  a  good  price 
whatever  he  might  himself  wish  to  sell.  Beyond 
all  this  he  had  given  slight  attention  to  the  ma* 
ter  of  colonies  until  the  great  Pitt  had  somewhat 
stirred  his  slow  imagination  with  talk  of  empire 
and  destiny.    It  was  doubtless  a  liberalizing  as 


If       I 


il 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  8i 

well  as  a  sobering  revelation  to  be  told  thpt  he 
was  the  "heir  apparent   of   the  Romans,"  with 
the  responsibilities  that  are  implied  'n  having  a 
high  mission  in  the  world.    Now  that  his  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  matter,  it  seemed  to  the 
average  Briton  that  in  meeting  the  obligation  of 
this  high  mission  and  in  dealing  with  this  far-flung 
empire,  a  policy  of  efficiency  such  as  that  advocated 
by  Mr.  Grenville  might  well  replace  a  policy  of  salu- 
tary neglect;  and  if  the  national  debt  had  doubled 
during  the  war.  as  he  was  authoritatively  assured, 
why  indeed  should  not  the  Americans,  grown  rich 
under  the  fostering  care  of  England  and  lately 
freed  from  the  menace  of  Prance  by  the  force  of 
British  arms,  be  expected  to  observe  the  Trade 
Acts    and  to  contribute  their  fair  share  to  the 
defense  of  that  new  worU  of  which  they  were 
the  chief  beneficiaries? 

If  Americans  were  quite  ready  in  their  easy- 
going  way  to  take  chances  in  the  matter  of  defense, 
hoping  that  things  would  turn  out  for  the  best  in 
the  future  as  they  had  in  the  past,  British  states- 
men and  right  honorable  members  of  the  House, 
viewing  the  question  broadly  and  without  provin- 
cial illusions,  understood  that  a  policy  of  prepared- 
ness was  the  only  salvation;  a  policy  of  muddling 


I 


i\ 


k  }|    i 


f; 


,r  \ 


)    . 


88        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
through  would  no  longer  suffice  as  it  had  done  in 
the  good  old  days  before  country  squires  and 
London  merchants  realized  that  their  country  was 
a  world  power.    In  those  days,  when  the  shrewd 
Robert  Walpole  refused  to  meddle  with  schemes 
for  taxing  America,  the  accepted  theory  of  defense 
was  a  simple  one.    If  Britain  policed  the  sea  and 
kept  the  Bourbons  in  their  place,  it  was  thought 
that  the  colonies  might  be  left  to  manage  the  In- 
dians; fur  traders,  whose  lure  the  red  man  could 
not  resist,  and  settlers  occupying  the  lands  beyond 
the  mountains,  so  it  was  said,  would  do  the  busi- 
ness.   In  1749,  five  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  had  been  granted  to  the  Ohio  Company 
"in  the  King's  interest"  and   "to  cultivate    a 
friendship  with  the  nations  of  Indians  inhabiting 
those  parts";  and  as  late  as  1754  the  Board  of 
Trade  was  still  encouraging  the  rapid  settling  of 
the  West,  "inasmuch  as  nothing  can  more  effec- 
tively tend  to  defeat  the  dangerous  designs  of  the 
French." 

On  the  eve  of  the  last  French  war  it  may  well 
have  seemed  to  the  Board  of  Trade  that  this  policy 
was  being  attended  with  gratifying  results.  In 
the  year  1749,  La  Galissoni^re,  the  acting  Governor 
of  Canada,  conmiissioned  Celoron  de  Blainville  to 


V      I 


l\ 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  33 

take  possession  of  the  Ohio  Valley,  which  he  did  in 
form,  descending  the  river  to  the  Maumee,  and  so 
to  Lake  Erie  and  home  again,  having  at  conven- 
ient points  proclaimed  the  sovereignty  of  Louis 
XV  over  that  country,  and  having  laid  down,  as 
evidence  of  the  accomplished  fact,  certain  lead 
plates  bearing  awe-inspiring  inscriptions,  some  of 
which  have  been  discovered  and  are  preserved 
to  this  day.     It  was  none  the  less  a  dangerous 
junket.     Everywhere  Blainville  found  the  Indians 
of  hostile  mind;  everywhere,  in  every  village  almost, 
he  found  English  traders  plying  their  traffic  and 
"cultivating  a  friendship  with  the  Indians";  so 
that  upon  his  return  in  1750,  in  spite  of  the  lead 
plates  so  securely  buried,  he  must  needs  write  in 
his  journal:  "All  I  can  say  is  that  the  nations  of 
those  countries  are  ill  disposed  towards  the  French 
and  devoted  to  the  English." 

During  the  first  years  of  the  war  all  this 
devotion  was  nevertheless  seen  to  be  of  little 
worth.  Like  Providence,  the  Indians  were  sure 
to  side  with  the  big  battalions.  For  want  of  a 
few  eflFective  garrisons  at  the  beginning,  the  Eng- 
lish found  themselves  deserted  by  their  quon- 
dam allies,  and  although  they  -ecovered  this  facile 
allegiance  as  soon  as  the  French  garrisons  were 


*M 


I 


ll       ?! ' 


f    1P| 


'-.;! 


84        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

taken,  it  was  evident  enough  in  the  late  years  of 
the  war  that  fear  alone  ir:spired  the  red  man's 
loyalty.     The  Indian  apparenUy  did  not  reahze 
at  this  early  date  that  his  was  an  inferior  race  des- 
tined to  be  supplanted.     Of  a  primitive  and  un- 
cultivated intelligence,  it  was  not  possible  for 
him  to  foresee  the  beneficent  designs  of  the  Ohio 
Company  or  to  observe  with  friendly  curiosity 
the  surveyors  who  came  to  draw  imaginary  lines 
through  the  virgin  forest.    And  therefore,  even  in 
an  age  when  the  natural  rights  of  man  were  being 
loudly  proclaimed,  the  "Nations  of  Indians  in- 
habiting those  parts"  were  only  too  ready  to  be- 
lieve what  the  Virginia  traders  told  them  of  the 
Pennsylvanians,  what  the  Pennsylvama  traders 
told  them  of  the  Virginians  —  that  the  fair  words 
of  the  English  were  but  a  kind  of  mask  to  conceal 
the  greed  of  men  who  had  no  other  desire  than 
to  deprive  the  red  man  of  his  beloved  hunting 
grounds. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  industrious  men  with 
pedantic  minds  who  day  by  day  read  the  dis- 
patches that  accumulated  in  the  office  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  became  aware,  during  the  years 
from  1758  to  1761,  that  the  old  policy  of  defense 
was  not  altogether  adequate.     "The  granting  of 


^ 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  85 

lands  hitherto  unsettled, "  so  the  Board  reported 
in  1761,  "appears  to  be  a  measure  of  the  most 
dangerous  tendency. "  In  December  of  the  same 
year  all  governors  were  accordingly  forbidden  "to 
pass  grants  ...  or  encourage  settlements  upon 
any  lands  within  the  said  colonies  which  may  in- 
terfere with  the  Indians  bordering  upon  them. " 

The  policy  thus  initiated  found  final  expression 
in  the  famous  Proclamation  of  1763,  in  the  early 
months  of  Grenville's  ministry.  By  the  terras  of 
the  Proclamation  no  further  grants  were  to  be 
made  within  lands  "which,  not  having  been  ceded 
to,  or  purchased  by  us,  are  reserved  to  the  said 
Indians"  — that  is  to  say,  "all  the  lands  lying  to 
the  westward  of  the  sources  of  the  rivers  which 
fall  into  the  sea  from  the  west  or  the  north- 
west." All  persons  who  had  "either  willfully  or 
inadvertently  seated  themselves"  on  the  reserved 
lands  were  required  "forthwith  to  remove  them- 
selves"; and  for  the  future  no  man  was  to  pre- 
sume to  trade  with  the  Indians  without  first 
giving  bond  to  observe  such  regulations  as  "we 
shall  at  any  time  think  fit  to  .  .  .  direct  for 
the  benefit  of  the  said  trade."  All  these  pro- 
visions were  designed  "to  the  end  that  the  Indians 
may  be  convinced  of  our  justice  and  determined 


f:i 


11 


fc|-.| 


litfMBriii 


m 


/:   fr 


86        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

resolution  to  remove  all  reasonable  cause  of  dis- 
content."    By  royal  act  the  territory  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  to  the  Mississippi,  from  Florida  to 
50°  north  latitude,  was  thus  closed  to  settlement 
••for  the  present"  and  "reserved  to  the  Indians  " 
Having  thus  taken  measures  to  protect  the  In- 
dians against  the  colonists,  the  mother  country 
was  quite  ready  t-  protect  the  colonists  against 
the  Indians.     Rash  Americans  ^ere  apt  to  say  the 
danger  was  over  now  that  the  French  were  "ex- 
pelled from  Canada."    This  statement  was  childish 
enough  in  view  of  the  late  Pontiac  uprising  which 
was  with  such  great  difficulty  suppressed  -  if  indeed 
one  could  say  that  it  was  suppressed  —  by  a  general 
as  efficient  even  as  Amherst,  with  seasoned  British 
troops  at  his  command.     The  red  man,  even  if 
he  submitted  outwardly,  harbored  in  his  vengeful 
heart  the  rankling  memory  of  many  griefs,  real  or 
imaginary;  and  he  was  still  easily  swayed  by  his 
ancient  but  now  humiliated  French  friends,  who 
had  been  "expelled  from  Canada"  or     indeed  in 
a  political  sense  but  were  still  very  r.    Su  there  as 
promoters  of  trouble.   What  folly,  tht.efore,  to  talk 
of  withdrawing  the  troops  from  America !    No  sane 
man  but  could  see  that,  under  the  circumstances, 
such  a  move  was  quite  out  of  the  question. 


Ih^i 


^i 


I 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  37 

It  would  materially  change  tht  circumstances, 
undoubtetily,  if  Americans  could  ever  be  induced 
to  undertake,  in  any  systematic  and  adequate 
manner,  to  provide  for  their  own  defense  in  their 
own   way.      In   that  case   the   mother  country 
would  be  only  too  glad  to  withdraw  her  troops, 
of  which  indeed  she  had  none  too  many.     But  it 
was  well  known  what  the  colonists  could  be  relied 
upon  to  do,  or  rather  what  they  could  be  relied 
upon  not  to  do,  in  the  way  of  cooperative  effort. 
Ministers  had  not  forgotten  that  on  the  eve  of 
the  last  war,  at  the  very  climax  of  the  danger,  the 
colonial  assemblies  had  rejected  a  Plan  of  Union 
prepared  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  one  man,  if 
any  man  there  was,  to  bring  the  colonies  together. 
They  had  rejected  the  plan  as  involving  too  great 
concentration  of  authority,  and  they  were  unwilling 
to  barter  the  veriest  jot  or  tittle  of  their  much  prized 
provincial  liberty  for  any  amount  of  protection. 
And  if  they  rejected  this  plan -a  very  mild  and 
harmless  plan,  ministers  were  bound  to  think  — 
it  was  not  likely  they  could  be  induced,  in  time  of 
peace,  to  adopt  any  plan  that  might  be  thought 
adequate  in  England.     Such  a  plan,  for  example, 
was  that  prepared  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  by  which 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  governors  were 


1*1 


i-H 


I 


!  r. 


i: 


0 


h   . 


38        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

empow<  i»  d  to  determine  the  military  establish- 
ment a  IK  I  lo  apportion  the  expense  of  maintaining 
it  amonp  th(>  several  colonies  on  the  basiM  of  wealth 
and  pop*  !u! ion.  Assemblies  which  for  years  past 
had  systt'ina  ( i. rally  deprived  governors  of  all  discre- 
tionary TK)  to  expend  money  raised  by  the  as- 
semblie&  '"  Pi  elves  would  surely  never  surrender 
to  go> .  •  (ir^  J  Ue  power  of  determining  how  much 
assemb  t :  bln»i,ld  raise  for  governors  to  (  xpend. 

Dou'  iN-.«-  it  nigh;  be  said  with  truth  that  the 
colonics  d  v,)I"i..  •?-  contributed  more  than 
their  f.  a  w«i'  f  U-  last  war;  but  it  was  also  true 
that  Pit  ,  and  V>  alone,  could  get  them  to  do 
this.  T  ic  King  could  not  always  count  on  there 
being  in  England  a  great  genius  like  Pitt,  and 
besides  he  did  not  always  find  it  convenient,  for 
reasons  which  could  be  given,  to  employ  a  great 
genius  like  Pitt.  A  system  of  defense  had  to  be 
designed  for  normal  times  and  normal  men;  and 
in  normal  times  with  normal  men  at  the  helm, 
ministers  were  agreed,  the  American  attitude  to- 
wards defense  was  very  cleverly  described  by 
Franklin:  "Everyone  cries,  a  Union  is  absolutely 
necessary,  but  when  it  comes  to  the  manner  and 
form  of  the  Union,  their  weak  noddles  are  perfectly 
distracted. " 


U 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  89 

Noddles  of  miniatew,  however,  wefe  in  no  way 
dktracted  but  saw  dearly  that,  if  Americans  could 
not  agree  on  any  plan  of  defenac,  there  was  no  al- 
ternative but  "an  interposition  of  the  authority  of 
Parliament."     Such  interposition,  r«-commendcd 
by  the  Board  of  Trade  and  already  proposed  by 
Charles  Townshend  in  the  last  ministry,  was  now 
taken  in  hand  by  Grenville.     The  troops  were  to 
remain  in  America;  the  Mutiny  Act,  which  required 
soldiers  in  barracks  to  be  furnished  with  provisions 
and  utensils  by  local  authorities,  and  whirh  as  a 
matter  of  course  went  where  the  army  wtiit,  was 
supplemented  by  the  Quartering  Act,  which  made 
further  provision  for  the  billetiiag  and  supplying 
of  the  troops  in  America.    And  for  raising  some 
part  of  the  general  maintenance  fund  ministers 
could  think  of  no  tax  more  equitable,  or  easier  to 
be  levied  and  collected,  than  a  stamp  tax.     Some 
such  tax,  stamp  tax  or  poll  tax,  had  often  been 
recommended  by  colonial  governors,  as  a  means 
of  bringing  the  colonies  "to  a  sense  of  tiieir  duty 
to  the  King,  to  awaken  them  to  take  care  of  their 
lives  and  their  fortunes. "    A  crown  oflScer  in  North 
Carolina,  Mr.  M'CulIoh,  was  good  enough  to  assure 
Mr.  Charles  Jenkinson,  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Treasury,  backing  up  his  assertion  with  sundry 


IMi 


f   t 


»    ■' 


h  p 


t"l 


40        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

statistical  exhibits,  that  a  stamp  tax  on  the  conti- 
nental colonies  would  easily  yield  £60,000,  and  twice 
that  sum  if  extended  to  the  West  Indies.  As  early 
as  September  23,  1763,  Mr.  Jenkinson,  acting  on 
an  authorization  of  the  Treasury  Board,  accord- 
ingly wrote  to  the  Commissioners  of  Stamped 
Duties,  directing  them  "to  prepare,  for  their. Lord- 
ships' consideration,  a  draft  of  an  act  for  imposing 
proper  stamp  duties  on  His  Majesty's  subjects  in 
America  and  the  West  Indies." 

Mr.  Grenville,  who  was  not  in  any  case  the  man 
to  do  things  in  a  hurry,  nevertheless  proceeded 
very  leisurely  in  the  matter.  He  knew  very  well 
that  Pitt  had  refused  to  "burn  his  fingers"  with 
any  stamp  tax;  and  some  men,  such  as  his  friend 
and  secretary,  Mr.  Jackson,  for  example,  and  the 
Earl  of  Hillsborough,  advised  him  to  abandon  the 
project  altogether,  while  others  urged  delay  at 
least,  in  order  that  Americans  might  have  an  op- 
portunity to  present  their  objections,  if  they  had 
any.  It  was  decided  therefore  to  postpone  the 
matter  for  a  year;  and  in  presenting  the  budget 
on  March  9,  1764,  the  first  minister  merely  gave 
notice  that  "it  may  be  proper  to  charge  certain 
stamp  duties  in  the  said  colonies  and  plantations." 
Of  all  the  plans  for  taxing  America,  he  said,  this 


r      ^ 

■(I.'.. 


i| 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  41 

one  seemed  to  him  the  best ;  yet  he  was  not  wedded 
to  it,  and  would  willingly  adopt  any  other  preferred 
by  the  colonists,  if  they  could  suggest  any  other  of 
equal  efficacy.  Meanwhile,  he  wished  only  to  call 
upon  honorable  members  of  the  House  to  say  now, 
if  any  were  so  minded,  that  Parliament  had  not 
the  right  to  impose  any  tax,  external  or  internal, 
upon  the  colonies;  to  which  solemn  question,  asked 
in  full  house,  there  was  not  one  negative,  nor  any 
reply  except  Alderman  Beckford  saying:  "As  we 
are  stout,  I  hope  we  shall  be  merciful. " 

It  soon  appeared  that  Americans  did  have  ob- 
jections to  a  stamp  tax.     Whether  it  were  eqm'- 
table  or  not,  they  would  rather  it  should  not  be 
laid,  really  preferring  not  to  be  dished  up  in  any 
sauce  whatever,  however  fine.     The  tax  might,  as 
ministers  said,  be  easily  collected,  or  its  collection 
might  perhaps  be  attended  with  certain  difficulties; 
in  either  case  it  would  remain,  for  reasons  which 
they  were  ready  to  advance,  a  most  objectionable 
tax.     Certain   colonial   agents   then   in  England 
accordingly  sought   an   interview  with   the  first 
minister  in  order  to  convince  him,  if  possible,  of 
this  fact.     Grenville  was  very  likely  more  than 
ready  to  grant  them  an  interview,  relying  upon  the 
strength  of  his  position,  on  his  "tenderness  for  the 


t 


I 


I" 


« 


{'  .  >. 


42  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLITION 
subjects  in  America,"  and  upon  his  well-known 
powers  of  persuasion,  to  bring  them  to  his  way 
of  thinking.  To  get  from  the  colonial  agents  a 
kind  of  assent  to  his  measure  would  be  to  win 
a  point  of  no  slight  strategic  value,  there  being 
at  least  a  modicum  of  truth  in  the  notion  that 
just  government  springs  from  the  consent  oi  the 
governed. 

I  have  proposed  the  resolution  [the  minister  explained 
to  the  agents]  from  a  real  regard  and  tenderness  for 
the  subjects  in  the  colonies.  It  is  highly  reasonable 
they  should  contribute  something  towards  the  charge 
of  protecting  themselves,  and  in  aid  of  the  great  ex- 
pense Great  Britain  has  put  herself  to  on  their  account. 
No  tax  appears  to  me  so  easy  and  equitable  as  a  stamp 
duty.  It  will  fall  only  upon  property,  will  be  collected 
by  the  fewest  oflBcers,  and  will  be  equally  spread  over 
America  and  the  West  Indies.  .  .  .  It  does  not  require 
any  number  of  officers  vested  with  extraordinary  powers 
of  entering  houses,  or  extend  a  sort  of  influence  which 
I  never  wished  to  increase.  The  colonists  now  have  it 
in  their  power,  by  agreeing  to  this  tax,  to  establish 
a  precedent  for  their  being  consulted  before  any  tax  is 
imposed  upon  them  by  Parliament;  for  their  approba- 
tion of  it  being  signified  to  Parliament  next  year  .  .  . 
will  afford  a  forcible  argument  for  the  like  proceeding 
in  all  such  cases.  If  they  think  of  any  other  mode  of 
taxation  more  convenient  to  them,  and  make  any  pro- 
position of  equal  efficacy  with  the  stamp  duty,  I  will 
give  it  all  due  consideration. 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  4S 

The  agents  appear  at  least  to  have  been  silenced 
by  this  speech,  which  was,  one  must  admit,  so  fa- 
therly and  so  very  reasonable  in  tone;  and  doubt- 
less Grenville  thought  them  convinced,  too,  since 
he  always  so  perfectly  convinced  himself.     At  all 
events,  he  found  it  possible,  for  this  or  for  some 
other  reason,  to  put  the  whole  matter  out  of  his 
mind  until  the  next  year.    The  patriotic  American 
historian,  well  instructed  in  the  importance  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  has  at  first  a  difficulty  in  understand- 
ing how  it  could  occupy,  among  the  things  that  in- 
terested English  statesmen  at  this  time,  a  strictly 
subordinate  place;  and  he  wonders  greatly,  as  he 
runs  with  eager  interest  through  the  correspond- 
ence of  Grenville  for  the  year  1764,  to  find  it 
barely  mentioned  there.    Whether  the  King  re- 
ceived  him  less  coldly  today  than  the  day  before 
yesterday  was  apparently  more  on  the  minister's 
mind  than  any  possibility  that  the  Stamp  Act 
might  be  received  rather  warmly  in  the  colonies. 
The  contemporaries  of  Grenville,  even  Pitt  him- 
self, have  almost  as  little  to  say  about  the  com- 
ing great  event;  all  of  which  compels  the  histo- 
rian, reviewing  the  matter  judiciously,  to  reflect 
sadly  that  Englishmen  of  that  day  were  not  as 
fully  aware  of  the  importance  of  the  measure 


*i' 


I 


f^ 


II' 


\ 


1 

i 


44        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

before  it  was  passed  as  good  patriots  have  since 
become. 

There  is  much  to  confirm  this  notion  in  the 
circumstances  attending  the  passage  of  the  bill 
through  Parliament  in  the  winter  of  1765.    Gren- 
ville  was  perhaps  further  reassured,  in  spite  of 
persistent  rumors  of  much  high  talk  in  America, 
by  the  results  of  a  second  interview  which  he  had 
with  the  colonial  agents  just  before  introducing 
the  measure  into  the  House  of  Commons.    "  I  take 
no  pleasure,"  he  again  explained  in  his  reason- 
able way,  "in  bringing  upon  myself  their  resent- 
ments; it  is  my  duty  to  nianage  the  revenue.     I 
have  really  been  made  to  believe  that,  considering 
the  whole  circumstances  of  the  mother  country 
and  the  colonies,  the  latter  can  and  ought  to  pay 
something  to  the  common  cause.    I  know  of  no 
better  way  than  that  new  pursuing  to  lay  such  a 
tax.    If  you  can  tell  of  a  better,  I  will  adopt  it. " 
Franklin,  who  was  present  with  the  others  on 
this  occasion,  ventured  to  suggest  that  the  "  usual 
constitutional  way"  of  obtaim'ng  colonial  support, 
through  the  King's  requisition,  would  be  better. 
"Can  you  agree,"  asked  Grenville,  "on  the  pro- 
portions each  colony  should  raise?"     No,  they 
could  not  agree,  as  Franklin  was  bound  to  admit. 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  45 

knowing  the  fact  better  than  most  men.  And 
if  no  adequate  answer  was  forthcoming  from 
Franklin,  a  man  so  ready  in  expedients  and  so 
practiced  in  the  subtleties  of  dialectic,  it  is  no 
great  wonder  that  Grenville  thought  the  agents 
now  fully  convinced  by  his  reasom'ng,  which  after 
all  was  only  an  impersonal  formulation  of  the  in- 
exorable logic  of  the  situation. 

Proceeding  thus  leisurely ,  having  taken  so  much 
pains  to  elicit  reasonable  objection  and  none  being 
forthcoming,  Grenville,  quite  sure  of  his  ground, 
brought  in  from  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit- 
tee, in  February,  1765,  the  fifty-five  resolutions 
which  required  that  stamped  paper,  printed  by 
the  government  and  sold  by  officers  appointed  for 
that  purpose,  be  used  for  nearly  all  legal  docu- 
ments, for  all  customs  papers,  for  appointments  to 
all  ofl5ces  carrying  a  salary  of  £20  except  military 
and  judicial  offices,  for  all  grants  of  privilege  and 
franchises  made  by  the  colonial  assemblies,  for  li- 
censes to  retail  liquors,  for  all  pamphlets,  adver- 
tisements, handbills,  newspapers,  almanacs,  and 
calendars,  and  for  the  sale  of  packages  contaim'ng 
playing  cards  and  dice.     The  cxpedi -ncy  of  the  act 
was  now  explained  to  the  House,  as  it  had  been 
explained  to  the  agents.     That  the  act  was  legal. 


1' 


1^' 


f 


1 


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I, 


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I 


it 


46        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

which  few  people  in  fact  denied,  Grenville,  doing 
everything  thoroughly  and  with  system,  proceeded 
to  demonstrate  also.  The  colonies  claim,  he  said, 
"the  privilege  of  all  British  subjects  of  being 
taxed  only  with  their  own  consent."  Well,  for 
his  part,  he  hoped  they  might  always  enjoy  that 
privilege.  "May  this  sacred  pledge  of  liberty," 
cried  the  minister  with  unwonted  eloquence,  "be 
preserved  inviolate  to  the  utmost  verge  of  our 
dominions  and  to  the  latest  pages  of  our  history. " 
But  Americans  were  clearly  wrong  in  supposing 
the  Stamp  Act  would  deprive  them  of  the  rights 
of  Englishmen,  for,  upon  any  ground  on  which  it 
could  be  said  that  Englishmen  were  represented,  it 
could  be  maintained,  and  he  was  free  to  assert,  that 
Americans  were  represented,  in  Parliament,  which 
was  the  common  council  of  the  whole  Empire. 

The  measure  was  well  received.  Mr.  Jackson 
supposed  that  Parliament  had  a  right  to  tax 
America,  but  he  much  doubted  the  expediency  of 
the  present  act.  If  it  was  necessary,  as  ministers 
claimed,  to  tax  the  colonies,  the  latter  should  be 
permitted  to  elect  some  part  of  the  Parliament, 
"otherwise  the  liberties  of  America,  I  do  not  say 
will  be  lost,  but  will  be  in  danger."  The  one 
notable  event  of  this  "slight  day"  was  occasioned 


THE  BURDEN  OF  EMPIRE  47 

by  a  remark  of  Charles  Townshend,  who  asked 
with  some  asperity  whether  "these  American  chil- 
dren, planted  by  our  care,  nourished  up  by  our 
indulgence  to  a  degree  of  strength  and  opulence, 
and  protected  by  our  arms,"  would  now  be  so 
unfilial  as  to  "grudge  to  contribute  their  mite  to 
relieve  us  from  the  heavy  burden  under  which  we 
lie?"     Upon  which  Colonel  Isaac  Barre  sprang  to 
his  feet  and  delivered  an  impassioned,  unpremedi- 
tated reply  which  stirred  the  dull  House  for  perhaps 
three  minutes: 

They  planted   by  your  care!    No;  your  oppression 
planted  them  in  America.     They  fled  from  your  tyr- 
anny  to  a  then  uncultivated,  inhospitable  countrj-, 
where  they  exposed  themselves  to  almost  all  the  hard- 
ships to  which   human  nature  is  liable.  .  .  .     They 
nourished  up  by  your  indulgence !     They  grew  by  your 
neglect  of  them.     As  soon  as  you  began  to  care  about 
them,  that  care  was  exercised  in  sending  persons  to 
rule  them  in  one  department  and  another,  who  were, 
perhaps,  the  deputies  of  deputies  to  some  members  of 
this  house,  sent  to  spy  out  their  liberties,  to  misrepre- 
sent their  actions,  and  to  prey  upon  them;  men  whose 
behaviour  on  many  occasions  has  caused  the  blood  of 
these  sons  of  liberty  to  recoil  within  them.  .  .  .    They 
protected  by  your  arms!    They  have  nobly  taken  up 
arms  in  your  defense;  have  exerted  a  valor  amidst 
their  constant  and  laborious  industry,  for  the  defense 
of  a  country  whose  frontier  was  drenched  in  blood. 


ii' 


'i 


f 


48        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

while  its  interior  parts  yielded  all  its  little  savings  to 
your  emolument. 

A  very  warm  speech,  and  a  capital  hit,  too, 
thought  the  honorable  membera  of  the  House,  as 
they  settled  comfortably  back  again  to  endure  the 
routine  of  a  dull  day.  Towards  midnight,  after 
seven  hours  of  languid  debate,  an  adjournment  was 
carried,  as  everyone  foresaw  it  would  be,  by  a 
great  majority  —  205  to  49  in  support  of  the  minis- 
try'. On  the  13th  of  February  the  Stamp  Act  bill 
was  introduced  and  read  for  the  first  time,  without 
debate.  It  passed  the  House  on  the  27th;  on  the 
8th  of  March  it  was  approved  by  the  Lords  with- 
out protest,  amendment,  debate,  or  division;  and 
two  weeks  later,  the  King  being  then  temporarily 
out  of  his  mind,  the  bill  received  the  royal  assent 
by  commission. 

A  ■  a  later  day,  when  the  fatal  effects  of  the  Act 
were  but  too  apparent,  it  was  made  a  charge 
against  the  ministers  that  they  had  persisted  in 
passing  the  measure  in  the  face  of  strong  oppo- 
sition. But  it  was  not  so.  "As  to  the  fact  of 
a  strenuous  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act,"  said 
Burke,  in  his  famous  speech  on  American  taxation, 
"I  sat  as  a  stranger  in  your  gallery  when  it  was 
under  consideration.     Ftr  from  anything  inflam- 


THE  BURDEN  OP  EMPIRE  49 

matory,  I  never  heard  a  more  languid  debate  in 

this  house In  fact,  the  affair  passed  with  so 

very,  very  h'ttle  noise,  that  in  town  they  scarcely 
knew  the  nature  of  what  you  were  doing."    So 
far  as  men  concerned  themselves  with  the  doings 
of  Parh'ament,  the  colonial  measures  of  Grenville 
were  greatly  applauded;  and  that  not  alone  by  men 
who  were  ignorant  of  America.    Thomas  Pownall. 
once  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  well  acquainted 
with  the  colonies  and  no  bad  friefad  of  their  liber- 
ties, published  in  April,  1764,  a  pamphlet  on  the 
Administration  of  the  Colonies  which  he  dedicated 
to  George  Grenville.  "the  great  minister,"  who 
he  desired  might  live  to  see  the  "power,  prosperity, 
and  honor  that  must  be  given  to  his  country,  by 
so  great  and  important  an  event  as  the  interweav- 
ing the  administration  of  the  colonies  into  the 
British  administration." 


f 


CHAPTER  III 


ft 


THE   RIGHTS   OF    A    NATION 

BritUh  lubjects.  by  removing  to  America,  cultivating  a  wilder- 
neaa,  extending  the  domain,  and  increasing  the  wealth,  commerce, 
and  power  of  the  mother  country,  at  the  haznrd  of  their  Uvea  and 
fortunes,  ought  not,  and  in  fact  do  not  thereby  loie  their  .native 
righta.  —  Benjamin  Franldin. 

It  was  the  misfortune  of  Grenville  that  this 
"interweaving,"  as  Pownall  described  it,  should 
have  been  undertaken  at  a  most  inopportune  time, 
when  the  very  conditions  which  made  Englishmen 
conscious  of  the  burden  of  empire  were  giving  to 
Americans  a  new  and  highly  stimulating  sense  of 
power  and  independence.  The  marvelous  growth 
of  the  colonies  in  population  and  wealth,  much 
commented  upon  by  all  observers  and  asserted  by 
ministers  as  one  principal  reason  why  Americans 
should  pay  taxes,  was  indeed  well  worth  some  con- 
sideration. A  million  and  a  half  of  people  spread 
over  the  Atlantic  seaboard  might  be  thought  no 
great  number;  but  it  was  a  new  thing  in  the  world. 


THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION  ai 

well  worth  noting- which  had  in  fact  been  care- 
fully  noted  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  a  pamphlet 
on  The  Increase  of  Mankind,  Peopling  of  Countries, 
etc.  — that  within  three-quarters  of  a  century  the* 
population  of  the  continental  colonies  had  doubled 
every  twenty-five  years,  whereas  the  population  of 
Old  England  during  a  hundred  years  past  had  not 
doubled  once  and  now  stood  at  only  some  six  and  a 
half  millions.     If  this  should  go  on  -  and.  consider- 
mg  the  immense  stretches  of  free  land  beyond  the 
mountains,  no  one  could  suppose  that  the  present 
rate  of  increase  would  soon  fall  off  — it  was  not 
unlikely  that  in  another  century  the  center  of  em- 
pire, following  the  course  of  the  sun.  would  come  to 
rest  in  the  New  World.     With  these  facts  in  mind, 
one  might  indeed  say  that  a  people  with  so  much 
vitality   and   expansive   power   was   abundantly 
able  to  pay  taxes;  but  perhaps  it  was  also  a  fair 
mference.  if  any  one  was  disposed  to  press  the  mat- 
ter.  that,  unless  it  was  so  minded,  such  a  people 
was  already,  or  assuredly  soon  would  be.  equally 
able  not  to  pay  them. 

People  in  new  countries,  being  called  provin- 
cial, being  often  told  in  effect  that  having  made 
their  bed  they  may  lie  in  it.  easily  maintain  their 
self-respect  if  they  are  able  to  say  that  the  bed 


I'-lf 


r 


1! 


f  =! 


2^        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

is  indeed  a  very  comfortable  one.  If,  therefore, 
Americans  had  been  given  to  boasting,  their  grow- 
ing wealth  was  not,  any  more  than  their  increasmg 
numbers,  a  thing  to  be  passed  over  in  silence.  In 
every  colony  the  "starving  time,"  even  if  it  had 
ever  existed,  was  now  no  more  than  an  ancient 
tradition.  "Every  man  of  industry  has  it  in  his 
power  to  live  well,"  according  to  William  Smith 
of  New  York,  "and  many  are  the  instances  of 
persons  who  came  here  distressed  in  their  poverty 
who  now  enjoy  easy  and  plentiful  fortunes."  If 
Americans  were  not  always  aware  that  they  were 
rich  men  individually,  they  were  at  all  events  well 
instructed,  by  old-world  visitors  who  came  to  ob- 
serve them  with  a  certain  air  of  condescension, 
that  collectively  at  least  their  material  prosperity 
was  a  thing  to  be  envied  even  by  more  advanced 
and  more  civilized  peoples.  Therefore  any  man 
called  upon  to  pay  a  penny  tax  and  finding  his 
pocket  bare  might  take  a  decent  pride  in  the  fact, 
which  none  need  doubt  since  foreigners  like  Peter 
Kalm  found  it  so,  that  "the  English  colonies  in 
this  part  of  the  world  have  increased  so  much 
in  .  .  .  their  riches,  that  they  almost  vie  with  old 
England." 

That  the  colonies  might  possibly  "vie  with  old 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  as 

England."  was  a  notion  which  good  Americana 
could  contemplate  with  much  equam'mity ;  and  even 
if  the  Swedish  traveler,  according  to  a  habit  of 
travelers,  had  stretched  the  fncU  a  point  or  two, 
it  was  still  abundantly  clear  that  the  continental 
colonies  wer«»  thought  to  be,  even  by  Englishmen 
themstlves,  of  far  greater  importance  to  the  mother 
country  than  they  had  formerly  been.     Very  old 
men  could  remember  the  time  when  FiiRlish  states- 
men and  oconomiiits,  viewing  colonics  us  providen- 
tially designer!  to  promote  the  incroase  of  trade, 
had  regarded  the  northern  coloniis  us  little  better 
than  heavy  incumbrancson  the  iMiipir.',  and  their 
commerce  scarcely  worth  the  cws?  of  protection. 
It  was  no  longer  so;  it  could  no  l(.np<«r  l)e  said 
that  two-thirds  of  colonial  commei-     was  with  tlie 
tobacco  and  sugar  plantations,  or  that  Juniaica 
took  ofF  more  English  exports  than  the  middle  and 
northern  colonies  combined;  but  it  could  be  said, 
and  was   now  being   loudly   proclaimed  —  when 
it  was  a  point  of  debate  whether  to  keep  Canada 
or  Guadeloupe— that  the  nortliem  colonies  had 
already  outstripped  the  islands  as  consumers  of 
English  commodities. 

Of  this  fact  Americans  themselves  were  well 
aware.    The  question  whether  it  was  for  the  inter- 


V' 


\M 


it*' 


I- 


54        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

est  of  England  to  keep  Canada  or  Guadeloupe, 
which  was  much  discussed  in  1760,  called  forth 
the  notable  pamphlet  from  Franklin,  entitled  The 
Interest  of  Great  Britain  Considered,  in  which  he 
arranged  in  convenient  form  for  the  benefit  of  Eng- 
lishmen certain  statistics  of  trade.     From  these 
statistics  it  appeared  that,  whereas  in  1748  English 
exports  to  the  northern  colonies  and  to  the  West 
Indies  stood  at  some  £830,000  and  £730,000  re- 
specti  V  ely ,  ten  years  later  the  exports  to  the  West 
Indies  were  still  no  more  than  £877,571  while 
those  to  the  northern  colonies  had  advanced  to 
nearly  two  millions.     Nor  was  it  likely  that  this 
rate  of  increase  would  fall  off  in  the  future.     "  The 
trade  to  our  northern  colonies,"  said  Franklin,  "is 
not  only  greater  but  yearly  increasing  with  the 
increase  of  the  people.  .  .  .     The  occasion  for  Eng- 
lish goods  in  North  America,  and  the  inclination 
to  have  and  use  them,  is  and  must  be  for  ages  to 
come,  much  greater  than  the  ability  of  the  people 
to  buy  them."    For  English  merchants  the  pros- 
pect was  therefore  an  inviting  one;  and  if  Can- 
ada rather  than  Guadeloupe  was  kept  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  it  was  because  statesmen  and  econo- 
mists were  coming  to  estimate  the  value  of  colonies 
in  terms  of  what  they  could  buy,  and  not  merely. 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  55 

as  of  old,  in  terms  of  what  they  could  sell.    From 
this  point  of  view,  the  superiority  of  the  continen- 
tal over  the  insular  colonies  was  not  to  be  doubted. 
Americans  might  well  find  great  satisfaction  in  this 
disposition  of  the  mother  country  to  regard  her 
continental  colonies  so  highly  and  to  think  their 
trade  of  so  much  moment  to  her;  all  of  which, 
nevertheless,  doubtless  inclined  them  sometimes  to 
speculate  on  the  delicate  question  whether,  in  case 
they  were  so  important  to  the  mother  country,  they 
were  not  perhaps  more  important  to  her  than  she 
was  to  them. 

The  consciousness  of  rapidly  increasing  material 
power,  which  was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  last 
French  war,  did  nothing  to  dull  the  sense  of  rights, 
but  it  was,  on  the  contrary,  a  marked  stimulus  to 
the  mind  in  formulating  a  plausible,  if  theoretical, 
justification  of  desired  aims.     Doubtless  no  Ameri- 
can would  say  that  being  able  to  pay  taxes  was  a 
good  reason  for  not  paying  them,  or  that  obliga- 
tions  might  rightly  be  ignored  as  soon  as  one  was 
in  a  position  to  do  so  successfully;  but  that  he 
should  not  "lose  his  native  rights"  any  American 
could  more  readily  understand  when  he  recalled 
that  his  ancestors  had  without  assistance  from 
the  mother  country  transformed  a  wilderness  into 


P* 


r 


H 

m 


M        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

populous  and  thriving  communities  whose  trade 
was  now  becoming  indispensable  to  Britain.  There- 
fore, in  the  summer  of  1764,  before  the  doctrine 
of  colonial  rights  had  been  very  clearly  stated  or 
much  refined,  every  American  knew  that  the  Sugar 
Act  and  also  the  proposed  Stamp  Act  were  griev- 
ously burdensome,  and  that  m  some  way  or  other 
and  for  reasons  which  he  might  not  be  able  to 
^ve  with  precision,  they  involved  an  infringement 
of  essential  English  liberties.  Most  men  in  the 
colonies,  at  this  early  date,  would  doubtless  have 
agreed  with  the  views  expressed  in  a  letter  written 
to  a  friend  in  England  by  Thomas  Hutchinson  of 
Boston,  who  was  later  so  well  hated  by  his  com- 
patriots for  not  having  changed  his  views  with  the 
progress  of  events. 

The  colonists  (said  Hutchinson]  claim  a  power  of  mak- 
ing laws,  and  a  privilege  if  exemption  from  taxes, 
unless  voted  l)y  their  own  representatives.  .  .  .  Nor 
are  the  privileges  of  the  people  less  affected  by  duties 
laid  for  the  sake  of  the  money  arising  from  them  than 
by  an  internal  tax.  Not  one  tenth  part  of  the  people 
of  Great  Britain  have  a  voice  in  the  elections  to  Par- 
liament; and,  therefore,  the  colonies  can  have  no  claim 
to  it;  but  every  man  of  property  in  England  may  have 
his  voice,  if  he  will.  Besides,  acts  of  Parliament  do 
not  generally  affect  individuals,  and  every  interest  is 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  57 

repfcsented.  But  the  colonies  have  an  interest  dis- 
tinct from  the  interest  of  the  nation;  and  shall  the 
Parhament  be  at  once  party  and  judge? 

The  nation  treats  her  colonies  as  a  father  who  should 
aell  the  services  of  his  sons  to  reimburse  him  what 
they  had  cost  him,  but  without  the  same  reason-  for 
none  oi  the  colonies,  except  Georgia  and  Halifax,  cicra- 
sioned  any  charge  to  the  Crown  or  kingdom  in  the 
settlement  of  them.    The  people  of  New  England  fled 
for  the  sake  of  civil  and  religious  liberty;  multitudes 
flocked  to  America  with  this  dependence,  that  their 
liberties  should    l.e  safe.     They  and    their  posterity 
have  enjoyed  them  to  their  content,  and  therefore 
have  endured  with  greater  cheerfulness  all  the  hard- 
ships of  settling  new  countries.     No  ill  use  has  l«cn 
made  of  these  privileges;  but  the  domain  and  wealth 
of   Great   Britain    have    received    amazing   addition. 
Surely  the  services  we  have  rendered  the  nation  have 
not  subjected  us  to  any  forfeitures. 

I  know  it  is  said  the  colonies  are  a  charge  to  the  na- 
tion, and  they  should  contribute  to  their  own  defense 
and  protection.  But  during  the  last  war  they  annually 
contributed  so  largely  that  the  Pariiament  was  con- 
vmced  the  burden  would  be  insupportable;  and  from 
year  to  year  made  them  compensation;  in  scvend  of 
the  colonies  for  several  years  together  more  men  were 
raised,  m  proportion,  than  by  the  nation.  In  the  trad- 
ing towns,  one  fourth  part  of  the  profit  of  trade,  Ix- 
sidcs  imposts  and  excise,  was  annually  paid  to  the 
support  of  the  war  and  public  charges;  in  the  country 
towns,  a  farm  which  would  hardly  rent  for  twenty 
poumls  a  year,  paid  ten  pounds  in  taxes.     If  the  in- 


"t1 


X 


■•'SPSSfe*^i^6^Jf?'' 


M        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

habitants  of  Britain  had  paid  m  the  same  proportion, 
there  would  have  been  no  great  increaw;  in  the  national 
debt. 

Nor  is  there  occasion  for  any  national  expense  in 
America.  For  one  hundred  years  together  the  New 
England  colonies  received  no  aid  in  their  wani  with  the 
Indians,  assisted  by  the  French.  Those  povernmenta 
now  molested  are  as  able  to  defend  their  respective 
frontiers;  and  had  rather  do  the  whole  of  it  by  a  tax 
of  their  own  raising,  than  pay  their  prop«irtion  in  any 
other  way.  Moreover,  it  must  be  preju*eial  to  the 
national  interest  to  impose  parliamentary  ttmm.  The 
advantages  promi-sed  by  an  increa.se  of  tbr  .wvenue  are 
all  fallacious  and  delusive.  You  will  low^  aeK  than 
you  will  gain.  Britain  already  reaps  the  |*ofit  of  all 
their  trade,  and  of  the  increase  of  their  subst«nr<e.  By 
cherishing  their  present  turn  of  mind,  you  wiB  ser^•e 
your  interest  more  than  by  your  present  scheme*. 

Thomas  Hutchinson,  or  any  other  man,  iaight 
write  a  private  letter  without  committing  his 
country,  or,  with  due  caution  to  his  correspomlent, 
even  himself;  but  for  eflFective  public  and  oftfial 
protest  the  colonial  assemblies  were  the  proper 
channels,  and  very  expert  they  were  in  the  Imw- 
ness,  after  having  for  half  a  century  and  more  de- 
voted themselves  with  singleness  of  purpose  to  tbe 
guardianship  of  colonial  liberties.  Until  now,  lib- 
erties had  been  chiefly  threatened  by  the  insidious 
designs  of  colonial  governors,  who  were  for  the 


f 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  .19 

most  part  appointed  by  the  Crown  and  very  likely 
therefore  to  be  infected  with  the  spirit  of  preroga- 
tive than  which  nothing  could  be  more  danger- 
ous, as  everyone  must  know  who  recalled  the  great 
events  of  the  last  century.   With  those  great  events, 
the  eminent  men  who  directed  the  colonial  as- 
semblies -  heads  or  scions  or  proteges  of  the  best 
families  in  America,  men  of  wealth  and  not  with- 
out reading  —  were  entirely  familiar;  they  knew  as 
well  as  any  man  that  the  liberties  of  Englishmen 
had  been  vindicated  against  royal  prerogative  only 
by  depriving  one  king  of  his  head  and  another  of 
his  crown;  and  they  needed  no  instruction  in  the 
significance  of  the  "glorious  revolution,"  the  high 
justification  of  which  was  to  be  found  in  the  politi- 
cal gospel  of  John  Locke,  whose  book  they  had 
commonly  bought  and  conveniently  placed  on  their 
library  shelves. 

More  often  than  not,  it  is  true,  colonial  gover- 
nors were  but  ordinary  Englishmen  with  neither 
the  instinct  nor  the  capacity  for  tyranny,  intent 
mainly  upon  getting  their  salaries  paid  and  laying 
by  a  competence  against  the  day  when  they  might 
return  to  England.  But  if  they  were  not  kings, 
at  least  they  had  certain  royal  characteristics; 
and  a  certain  flavor  of  despotism,  clinging  as  it 


r.    A 


i 
i 

!     « 


f 


«0        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

were  to  their  official  robes  and  reviving  in  sensitive 
provincial  minds  the  memory  of  bygone  parlia- 
mentary battles,  was  an  ever-present  stimulus  to 
the  eternal  vigilance  which  was  well  known  to  be 
the  price  of  liberty. 

And  so,  throughout   the  eighteenth   century, 
little  colonial  aristocracies  played  their  part,  in 
imagination  clothing  their  governors  in  the  decay- 
ing vesture  of  old-world  tyrants  and  themselves 
assuming  the  homespun  garb,  half  Roman  and 
half  Puritan,  of  a  virtuous  republicanism.    Small 
matters  were  thus  stamped  with  great  character. 
To  debate  a  point  of  procedure  in  the  Boston  or 
Williamsburg  assembly  was  not,  to  be  sure,  as 
high  a  privilege  as  to  obstruct  legislation  in  West- 
minster; but  men  of  the  best  American  families, 
fashioning  their  minds  as  well  as  their  hou.ts  on 
good  English  models,  thought  of  themselves,  in 
withholding  a  governor's  salary  or  limiting  his  ex- 
ecutive power,  as  but  regnacting  on  a  lesser  stage 
the  great  parliamentary  struggles  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.    It  was  the  illusion  of  sharing  in 
great  events  rather  than  any  low  mercenary  mo- 
tive that  made  Americans  guard  with  jealous  care 
their  legislative  independence;  a  certain   hyper- 
sensitiveness  in  matters  of  taxation  they  knew  to 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  61 

be  the  virtue  of  men  standing  for  liberties  which 
Englishmen  had  once  won  and  might  lose  before 
they  were  aware. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  therefore,  the  colonial  as- 
semblies protested  against  the  measures  of  Gren- 
ville.     The  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  in- 
structed  its  agent  to  say  that  the  Sugar  Act  would 
ruin  the  New  England  fisheries  upon  which  the 
industrial  prosperity  of  the  northern  colonies  d«'. 
pended.     What  they  would  lose  was  set  down  with 
some  care,  in  precise  figures:  the  fishing  trade, 
"estimated  at  £164,000  per  annum;  the  ves.<M«lscm- 
ployetl   in  it.  which  would  be  nearly  useless,  at 
£100,000;  the  provisions  used  in  it,  the  casks  for 
packing  fish,  and  other  articles,  at  £22,700  and 
upwards:  to  all  which  there  was  to  be  added  the 
loss  of  the  advantage  of  sending  lumber,  horses, 
provisions,  and  other  commodities  to  the  foreign 
plantations  as  cargoes,  the  vessels  employed  to 
carry  the  fish  to  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  dismiss- 
ing of  5,000  seamen  from  their  employment,"  he- 
aides  many  other  losses,  all  arising  from  the  very 
simple  fact  that  the  British  islands  to  which  the 
trade  of  the  colonies  was  virtually  confined  by  the 
Sugar  Act  could  furnish  no  sufficient  market  for 
the  products  of  New  England,  to  say  nothing  of 


n 

y 


M 


:». 


iy 


1  I 


W        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

the  micldlo  colonies,  nor  a  tithe  of  the  molasses  and 
other  commodities  now  imported  from  the  foreign 
islands  in  exchange. 

Of  the  things  taken  in  exchange,  silver,  in  coin 
and  bullion,  was  not  the  least  important,  since  it 
was  essential  for  the  "remittances  to  England  for 
goods  imported  into  the  provinces,"  remittances 
which  during  the  last  eighteen  months,  it  was  said, 
"  had  been  made  in  specie  to  the  amount  of  £150,000 
besides  £90,000  in  Treasurer's  bills  for  the  reim- 
bursemc  rt  money. "    Any  man  must  thus  see,  since 
even  Governor  Bernard  was  convinced  of  it,  that  the 
new  duties  would  drain  the  colony  of  all  its  hard 
money,  and  so,  as  the  Governor  said,  "There  will 
be  an  end  of  the  specie  currency  in  Massachu.setts. " 
And  with  her  trade  half  gone  and  her  hard  money 
entirely  so,  the  old  Bay  colony  would  have  to 
manufacture  for  herself  those  very  commodities 
which  English  merchants  were  so  desirous  of  sell- 
ing in  America. 

The  Sugar  Act  was  thus  made  out  to  be,  even 
from  the  point  of  view  of  English  merchants,  an 
economic  blunder;  but  in  the  eyes  of  vigilant  Bos- 
tonians  it  was  something  more,  and  much  worse 
than  an  economic  blunder.  Vigilant  Bostonians 
assembled  in  Town  Meeting  in  May,  1764,  in 


THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION  6S 

order  to  instruct  their  representatives  how  they 
ought  to  act  in  these  serious  times;  and  knowing 
that  they  ought  to  protest  but  perhaps  not  know- 
ing  precisely  on  what  grounds,  they  committed  the 
drafting  of  their  instructions  to  Samuel  Adums,  a 
middle-aged  man  who  had  given  much  time  to  the 
consideration  of  political  questions,  and  above  all 
to  this  very  question  of  taxation,  upon  which  he 
had  wonderfully  clarified  his  ideas  by  much  medi- 
tation and  the  writing  of  effective  political  piecea 
for  the  newspapers. 

Through  the  eyes  of  Samuel  Adams,  therefore, 
vigilant  Bostonians  saw  clearly  that  the  Sugar  Act, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  Stamp  Act,  was  not  only  an 
economic  blunder  but  a  menace  to  political  liberty 
as  well.     "  If  our  trade  may  be  taxed. "  so  the  in- 
struotions  ran,  "  why  not  our  lands?     Why  not  the 
produce  of  our  lands,  and  everything  we  pos.sess 
or  make  use  of?    This  we  apprehend  annihilates 
our  charter  right  to  govern  and  tax  ourselves.     It 
strikes  at  our  British  privileges  which,  as  we  have 
never  forfeited  them,  we  hold  in  common  with  our 
fellow-subjects  who  are  natives  of  Great  Britain. 
If  taxes  are  laid  upon  us  in  any  shape  without  our 
having  a  legal  representative  where  they  are  laid, 
are  we  not  reduced  from  the  character  of  free  sub- 


I  I 


</ 


I  I 

In. 

'i  I 


•4        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

jects  to  the  tuiaerabN>  stale  of  tributary  slaves?" 
Very  formidable  questions,  touched  in  high-sound- 
ing phrases,  and  representing  well  enough  in  form 
and  in  substance  the  slate  of  mind  of  colonial  as- 
senjblifs  in  Ihe  summer  of  1764  in  respect  lo  the 
Sugar  Act  and  the  proposerl  Stamp  Act. 

Yet  these  resovuiding  phrases  doubtless  meant 
sonulhing  less  to  Americans  of  1764  than  one  is 
apt  to  suppose.     The  rights  of  freemen  had  so 
often,  in  the  proceedings    >f  colonial  assemblies 
as  well  as  in  tlu'  newspaj..  >■  communications  of 
many  a  Brutus  and  Cato,  hten  made  to  depend 
upon  withholding  a  governor's  salary  or  defining 
precisely  how  he  should  expend  a  hundred  pounds 
or  so,  that  moderate  terms  could  hardly  be  trusted 
to  cope  with  the  serious  business  of  parliamentary 
taxation.     "Reduced  from  the  character  of  free 
subjects  to  the  miserable  state  of  tributary  slaves" 
was  in  fact  hardly  more  than  a  conventional  and 
dignified  way  of  expressing  a  firm  but  entirely 
respectful  protest. 

The  truth  is,  tiierefore,  that  while  everyone  pro- 
tested in  such  spirited  terms  as  might  occur  lo 
him,  few  men  in  these  early  days  supposed  the  new 
laws  would  not  take  effect,  and  fewer  still  counseled 
the  right  or  believed  in  the  practicability  of  forcible 


i: 


TIIE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  65 

rosistano...     -Wo yield  olu'diemr  to  thr  act  grant- 
inff  duties."  declared  the  MasnachuH^.ttM  AsMemhIy. 
"Let  Parliament  lay  what  ^lutitn  they  please  on 
us."  said  James  Oti.H;  "it  is  our  duly  to  submit 
und  patiently  bear  them  till  they  be  pleased  to 
relieve  us. "     Franklin  assured  his  friends  that  the 
passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  could  not  have  bw-n 
prevented  any  more  easily  than  the  sun's  setting, 
recommended    that    they    endure    the    one   mis' 
chance   with    the   same   equanimity   with   which 
they  faced    the  other   necessity,   and   even   saw 
certain  advantages  in  the  way  of  s,'If.discipline 
which  might  come  of  it  through  the  practice  of 
a  greater  frugality.     Not  yet  perceiving  the  dis- 
honor  attaching  to  the  function  of  distributi  ^ 
stamps,  he  did  his  two  friends,  Jartnl  Ingersolj  of 
Connecticut  and  John  Hughes  of  Pennsylvania, 
the  service  of  procuring  for  then,  the  appointment 
to  the  new  office;  and  Richard  Henry  I^e,  as 
good  a  patriot  as  any  man  and  therefore  of  ne^-s- 
sity  at  some  pains  later  to  explain  his  motives  in 
the  matter,  applied  for  the  position  in  Virginia. 

Richard  Henry  Uh^  was  no  friend  of  tyrants, 
but  an  American  freeman,  less  distinguishecl  as 
yet  than  his  name,  which  was  a  famous  one  and 
not  without  offense  to  be  omitted  from  any  list 


^t 


MICROCOPY   RESOIUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


2.8 
13.2 

14.0 


2.5 
2.2 

1.8 


^     APPLIED  INA^GE 


'653  East   Main   Strett 

Rochester,   Ne»   York        U609       USA 

(716)   482  -0300 -Phone 

(716)   288  -  5989  -Fax 


I 


i-r: 


Mr 


V 


66        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

of  the  Old  Dominion's  "best  families. "    The  best 
families  of  the  Old  Dominion,  tide-water  tobacco 
planters  of  considerable  estates,  admirers  and  imi- 
tators of  the  minor  aristocracy  of  England,  took 
it  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  political  fortunes 
of  the  province  were  committed  to  their  care  and 
for  many  generations  had  successfully  maintained 
the  public  interest  against  the   double  danger 
of  executive  tyranny  and  popular  licentiousness. 
It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  the  many  ob- 
scure freeholders,  minor  planters,  and  lesser  men 
who  filled  the  House  of  Burgesses  i  ad  followed 
the  able  leadership  of  that  little  coterie  of  inter- 
related families  comprising  the  Virginia  aristocracy. 
John  Robinson,  Speaker  of  the  House  and  Treasurer 
of  the  colony,  of  good  repute  still  in  the  spring  of 
1765,  was  doubtless  the  head  and  front  of  this 
aristocracy,  the  inner  circle  of  which  would  also 
include  Peyton  Randolph,  then  King's  Attorney, 
and  Edmimd  Pendleton,  well  known  for  his  cool 
persuasiveness  in  debate,  the  learned  constitu- 
tional lawyer,  Richard  Bland,  the  sturdy  and 
honest  but  ungraceful  Robert  Carter  Nicholas, 
and  George  Wythe,  noblest  Roman  of  them  all, 
steeped  in  classical  lore,  with  the  thin,  sharp  face 
of  a  Caesar  and   for  virtuous  integrity  a  very 


\\ 


^^^IK*" 


Ifi^' 


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CHARLES  CAkROLL  ^  CARROLLTON 
Painting  by  Thomas  Sully,  18S6. 


IS 

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EDMtTND  PENDLBTm 

l^inting  in  the  odiection  of  the  Virpoift  SOrtoriMl  Sbeieir,  Kdw 

moncLVs.. 


■11 


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,!  , 


'11 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  67 

Cato.  Conscious  of  their  English  heritage,  they 
were  at  once  proud  of  their  loyalty  to  Britain  and 
jealous  of  their  well-won  provincial  liberties.  As 
became  British-American  freemen,  they  had  al- 
ready drawn  a  proper  Memorial  against  the  Sugar 
Act  and  were  now,  as  they  leisurely  gathered  at 
Williamsburg  in  the  early  weeks  of  May,  1765, 
unwilling  to  protest  again  at  present,  for  they  had 
not  as  yet  received  any  reply  to  their  former  dig- 
nified and  respectful  petition. 

To  this  assembly  of  the  burgesses  in  1765, 
there  came  from  the  back-country  beyond  the 
first  falls  of  the  Virginia  rivers,  the  frontier  of 
that  day,  many  deputies  who  must  have  presented, 
in  dress  and  manners  as  well  as  in  ideas,  a  sharp 
contrast  to  the  eminent  leaders  of  the  aristocracy. 
Among  them  was  Thomas  Marshall,  father  of 
a  famous  son,  and  Patrick  Henry,  a  young  man 
of  twenty-nine  years,  a  heaven-born  orator  and 
destined  to  be  the  leader  and  interpreter  of  the 
silent  "simple  folk"  of  the  Old  Dominion.  In 
Hanover  County,  in  which  this  tribune  of  the 
people  was  bom  and  reared  and  which  he  now 
represented,  there  were,  as  in  all  the  back- 
country  counties,  few  great  estates  and  few  slaves, 
no  notable  country-seats  with  pretension  to  arehi- 


'I 


1    !•- 


tt 


I 


68  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
tectum'  excellence,  no  modishly  dressed  aristoc- 
racy with  leisure  for  reading  and  the  cultivation 
of  manners  becoming  a  gentleman.  Beyond  the 
tide-water,  men  for  the  most  part  earned  their 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brows,  lived  the  life 
and  esteemed  the  virtues  of  a  primitive  society, 
and  braced  their  minds  with  the  tonic  of  Calvin's 
theology  — a  tonic  somewhat  tempered  in  these 
late  enlightened  days  by  a  more  humane  philo- 
sophy and  the  friendly  emotionalism  of  simple  folk 
living  close  to  nature. 

Free  burgesses  from  the  back-country,  set  apart 
in  dress  and  manners  from  the  great  planters,  less 
learned  and  less  practiced  in  oratory  and  the  subtle 
art  of  condescension  and  patronage  than  the  cul- 
tivated men  of  the  inner  circle,  were  nevertheless 
staunch  defenders  of  liberty  and  American  rights 
and  were  perhaps  beginning  to  question,  in  these 
days  of  popular  discussion,  whether  liberty  could 
very  well  flourish  among  men  whose  wealth  was 
derived  from  the  labor  of  negro  slaves,  or  be  well 
guarded  under  a  1  circumstances  by  those  who,  re- 
garding themselves  as  superior  to  the  general  run 
of  men,  might  be  in  danger  '>f  mistaking  their  par- 
ticular interests  for  the  common  welfare.  And  in- 
deed it  now  seemed  that  these  great  men  who  sent 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  69 

their  sons  to  London  to  be  (  atctl,  who  every 
year  shipped  their  tobacco  to  England  and  bought 
their  clothes  of  English  merchants  with  whom  their 
credit  was  always  good,  were  grown  somi'thing  too 
timid,  on  account  of  their  loyalty  to  Britain,  in  the 
great  question  of  asserting  the  rights  of  America. 
Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  would  have  well  under- 
stood Patrick  Henry,  one  of  those  passionate  tem- 
peraments whose  reason  functions  not  in  the  service 
of  knowledge  but  of  good  instincts  and  fine  emo- 
tions; a  nature  to  be  easily  possessed  of  an  exalted 
enthusiasm  for  popular  rights  and  for  celebrating 
the  virtues  of  the  industrious  poor.  This  enthusi- 
asm in  the  case  of  Patrick  Henry  was  intensified  by 
his  own  eloquence,  which  had  been  so  eflfectively 
exhibited  in  the  famous  Parson's  Cause,  and  in 
opposition  to  the  shady  scheme  which  the  old  lead- 
ers in  the  House  of  Burgesses  had  contrived  to 
protect  John  Robinson,  the  Treasurer,  from  being 
exposed  to  a  charge  of  embezzlement.  Such  cou- 
rageous exploits,  widely  noised  abroad,  had  won  for 
the  young  man  great  applause  and  had  got  him  a 
kind  of  party  of  devoted  followers  in  the  back- 
country  and  among  the  yeomanry  and  young  men 
throughout  the  province,  so  that  to  take  the  lead 
and  to  stand  boldly  forth  as  the  champion  of  lib- 


'M 


y' 


U 


I'  -'^ 


70        THE  E\i:  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
erty  and  the  submerged  rights  of  mankind  seenud 
to  Patrick  Henry  a  kind  of  mission  laid  upon  him. 
in  virtue  oi  his  heavenly  gift  of  speech,  by  that 
Providence  which  shapis  the  destinies  of  men. 

It  was  said  that  Mr.  Henry  was  not  h'amed  in 
the  law;  but  he  had  read  in  Coke  upon  Littleton 
that  an  Act  ot  Pariiament  against  Magna  Carta, 
or  common  right,  or  reason,  is  void  — which  was 
cleariy  the  case  of  the  Stamp  Act.    On  the  flyleaf 
of  an  old  copy  of  that  book  this  unlearned  lawyer 
accordingly  wrote  out  some  resolutions  of  protest 
which  he  showed  to  his  friends,  George  Johnston 
and  John  Fleming,  for  their  approval.     Their  ap- 
proval once  obtained,  Mr.  Johnston  moved,  with 
Mr.  Henry  as  second,  that  the  House  of  Burgesses 
should  go  into  committee  of  the  whole,  "to  consider 
the  steps  necessary  to  be  taken  in  consequence  of 
the  resolutions  .  .  .  charging  certain  Stfimp  Duties 
in  the  colonies";  whi^h  was  accordingly  done  on 
the  29th  of  May,  upon  which  day  Mr.  Henry  pre- 
sented his  resolutions. 

The  29tli  of  May  was  late  in  that  sessio.  )f  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses;  and  most  likely  the 
resolutions  would  have  been  rejected  if  some  two- 
thirds  of  the  members,  who  knew  nothing  of  Mr. 
Henry's  plans  and  supposed  the  business  of  the 


TIIK  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  71 

Assembly  finislu'd,  ha<l  not  ulready  gtme  homo. 
Among  thost'  who  hud  thus  departed,  it  is  not 
likely  that  therr  were  many  of  Patrick  Henry's  fol- 
lowers. Yet  even  so  there  was  much  opposition. 
The  resolutions  were  apparently  refashioned  in 
committee  of  the  whole,  for  a  preamble  w;is  omit- 
ted outright  a-'d  four  "Resolves"  were  made  over 
into  five  which  were  presented  to  the  House  on 
the  day  following. 

Young  Mr.  Jefferson,  at  that  time  a  law  student 
and  naturally  much  interested  in  the  business  of 
lawmaking,  heard  the  whole  of  this  day's  famous 
debate  from  the  door  of  communication  between 
the  House  and  the  lobby.  The  five  resolutions,  he 
afterwards  remembered,  were  "opposed  by  Ran- 
dolph, Bland,  Pendleton,  Nicholas,  Wythe,  and 
all  the  old  members,  whose  influence  in  the  House 
had,  till  then,  been  unbroken;  .  .  .  not  from  any 
question  of  our  rights,  but  on  the  ground  that 
the  same  sentiments  had  been,  at  their  preceding 
session,  expressed  in  a  more  conciliatory  form, 
to  which  the  answers  were  not  yet  received.  But 
torren*  of  sublime  eloquence  from  Mr.  Henry, 
backe  jy  the  solid  reasoning  of  Johnston,  pre- 
vailed." It  was  in  connection  with  the  fifth  reso- 
lution, upon  which  the  debate  was  "most  bloody," 


I' 


i 


i- 


•^H 


w 

n 


n       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

that  Patrick  Henry  k  said  to  have  dwlared 
that  "Tarquin  and  Ciesar  had  each  his  BrutuH, 
Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and  George  the 
Third—";  upon  which  cries  of  "Treason"  were 
heard  from  every  part  of  the  House.  Treaw)n  or 
not,  the  resolution  was  carried,  although  by  one 
vote  only;  and  the  young  law  student  standing  at 
the  door  of  the  House  heard  Peyton  Randolph  say, 
as  he  came  hastily  out  into  the  lobby:  "By  God, 
I  would  have  given  500  guineas  for  a  single  vote." 
And  no  doubt  he  would,  at  that  moment,  being 
then  much  heated. 

Next  day  Mr  Randolph  was  probably  much 
cooler;  and  so  apparently  were  some  others  who, 
in  the  enthusiasm  of  debate  and  under  the  compel- 
ling eye  of  Patrick  Henry,  had  voted  for  the  last 
defiant  resolution.  Thinking  the  matter  settled, 
Patrick  Henry  had  already  gone  home  "to  recom- 
mend himself  to  his  constituents, "  as  his  enemies 
thought,  "by  spreading  treason." 

But  the  matter  was  not  yet  settled.  Early  on 
that  morning  of  the  31st,  before  the  House  assem- 
bled, the  young  law  student  who  was  so  curious 
about  the  business  of  lawmaking  saw  Colonel  Peter 
Randolph,  of  his  Majesty's  Council,  standing  at  the 
Clerk's  table,  "thumbing  over  the  volumes  of  jour- 


UEORGE  WASHINUTON,  IS  THE  VSIFORk    OP    A    Vttt. 
(ilNlA  COLONEL 

Painting  by  (•h«|«Wllk,„P«|e.  ,77,.  Tb.  .rikt  port»lt  o( 
n«h.ngton  irom  life.  In  Washington  .nd  Le.  IW-it^ 
I'niZ't"        ■     "•*'~*^  ''J' "^"-i' "^  »»- l-^-W^t  of  the 


m 


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f. 

f, 

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THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  73 

nals  to  find  a  precedent  for  expunging  a  vote  of 
the  House."    Whether  the  precedent  was  found 
the  young  law  student  did  not  afterwards  recol- 
lect;  but  it  is  known  that  on  motion  of  Peyton 
Randolph  the  fifth  resolution  was  that  day  erased 
from  the  record.     Mr.  Henry  was  not  then  present. 
He  had  been  seen,  on  the  afternoon  before,  "passing 
along  the  street,  on  his  way  to  his  home  in  Louisa, 
clad  in  a  pair  of  leather  breeches,  his  saddle-bags  on 
his  arm,  leading  a  lean  horse. " 

The  four  resolutions  thus  adopted  as  the  deliber- 
ate and  formal  protest  of  the  Old  Dominion  were 
as  mild  and  harmless  as  could  well  be.     They 
asserted  no  more  than  that  the  first  adventurers 
and  settlers  of  Virginia  brought  with  them  and 
transmitted  to  their  posterity  all  the  privileges 
at  any  time  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  Great  Brit- 
am;  that  by  two  royal  charters  they  had  been 
formally  declared  to  be  as  surely  possessed  of 
these  privileges  as  if  they  had  been  born  and  were 
then  abiding  within  the  realm;  that  the  taxation 
of  the  people  by  themselves  or  by  persons  chosen 
by  themselves   to  represent   them   "is  the  only 
security  against  a  burthensome  taxation,  and  the 
distinguishing  characteristick  of  British  freedom 
without   which   the  ancient  constitution  canuv  t 


I  . 


:| 


■:i: 


h 


hi  ^ 


74         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOU     '  )N 

exist";  and  that  the  loyal  colony  of  Virginia  had 
in  fact  without  interruption  enjoyed  this  ines- 
timable right,  which  had  never  been  forfeited 
or  surrendered  nor  ever  hitherto  denied  by  the 
kings  or  the  people  of  Britain.  No  treason  here, 
expressed  or  implied;  nor  any  occasion  for  500 
guineas  passing  from  one  hand  to  another  to  prove 
that  the  province  of  Virginia  was  still  the  ancient 
and  loyal  Old  Dominion. 

But  Fate,  or  Providence,  or  whatever  it  is  that 
presides  at  the  destinies  of  nations,  has  a  way  of 
setting  aside  with  ironical  smile  the  most  deliber- 
ate actions  of  men.  And  so,  on  this  occasion, 
it  turned  out  that  the  hard-won  victory  of  Messrs. 
Randolph,  Bland,  Pendleton,  and  Wythe  was  of 
no  avail.  William  Gordon  tells  us,  without  men- 
tiouing  the  source  of  his  information,  that  "a  manu- 
script of  the  unrevised  resolves  soon  reached  Phila- 
delphia, having  been  sent  off  immediately  upon 
their  passing,  that  the  earliest  information  of  what 
had  been  done  might  be  obtained  by  the  Sons  of 
Liberty."  From  Philadelphia  a  copy  was  for- 
warded, on  June  17,  to  New  York,  in  which  loyal 
city  the  resolutions  were  thought  "so  treasonable 
that  their  possessors  declined  printing  them";  but 
an  Irish  gentleman  from  Connecticut,  who  was 


THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION  75 

then  in  town,  inquired  after  them  and  was  with 
great  precaution  permitted  to  take  a  copy,  which 
he  straightway  carried  to  New  England.    All  this 
may  be  true  or  not;  but  certain  it  is  that  six 
resolutions  purporting  to  come  from  Virginia  were 
prmted  in  the  Newport  Mereury  on  June  24, 1765 
and  afterwards,  on  July  1.  in  many  Boston  papers! 
The  document  thus  printed  did  not  indeed  in- 
dude  the  famous  fifth  resolution  upon  which  the 
debate  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  was  "most 
bloody"  and  which  had  been  there  adopted  by  a 
smgle  vote  and  afterwards  erased  from  the  record; 
but  it  included  two  others  much  stronger  than 
that  eminently  treasonable  one: 

Resolved  Th^t  his  Majesty's  Liege  people,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  colony,  are  not  bound  to  yield  obedience 
to  any  law  or  ordinance  whatever,  designed  to  impose 
any  taxation  whatsoever  upon  them,  other  than  the 
laws  and  ordinances  of  the  General  Assembly  afore- 
said.  Resolved,  That  any  person  who  shall,  by  speak- 
ing or  writing,  assert  or  maintain  that  any  person  or 
persons  other  than  the  General  Assembly  of  this 
colony,  have  any  right  or  power  to  impose  any  taxation 
on  the  people  here,  shall  be  deemed  an  enemy  to  his 
Majesty's  colony. 

These  resolutions,  which  Governor  Fauquier  had 
not  seen,  and  which  w  re  perhaps  never  debated 


I1 


a,  a 


i^  k 


76        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  were  now  circulated 
far  and  wide  as  part  of  the  mature  decision  of  the 
Virginia  Assembly.    On  the  14th  of  September, 
Messrs.  Randolph,  Wythe,  and  Nicholas  were  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  apprise  the  Assembly's 
agent  "of  a  spurious  copy  of  the  resolves  of  the 
last  Assembly  .  .  .  being  dispersed  and  printed  in 
the  News  Papers  and  to  send  him  a  true  copy  of 
the  votes  on  that  occasion."    In  those  days  of 
slow  and  difficult  communication,  the  truth,  three 
months  late,  could  not  easily  overtake  the  false- 
hood or  ever  effectively  replace  it. 

In  later  years,  when  it  was  thought  an  honor 
to  have  begun  the  Revolution,  many  men  denied 
the  decisive  effect  of  the  Virginia  Resolutions  in 
convincing  the  colonists  that  the  Stamp  Act 
might  be  successfully  resisted.  But  contempo- 
raries were  agreed  in  according  them  that  glory  or 
that  infamy.  "Two  or  three  months  ago,"  said 
Governor  Bernard,  "I  thought  that  this  people 
would  submit  to  the  Stamp  Act.  Murmurs  were 
indeed  continually  heard,  but  they  seemed  to  be 
such  as  would  die  away.  The  publishing  the 
Virginia  Resolutions  proved  an  alarm-bell  to  the 
disaffected."  We  read  the  resolutions,  said  Jona- 
than* Sewell,  "with  wonder.     They  savored  of  in- 


JAMES  OTIS 
Painting  in  the  Old  State  Hoiue.  Bctoo. 


I 


«, 


^f 


SAMVSl  ADAMS 
Painting  by  John  Sini^eton  Copky. 


\ 


u  > 


i  I 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  7T 

dependence;  they  flattered  the  human  pasttions; 
the  reasoning  was  specious:  we  wished  it  conclusive. 
The  transition  to  believing  it  so  was  easy,  and  we, 
almost  all  America,  follownd  their  example  in  re- 
solving that  the  Parliament  had  no  such  right." 
And  the  goo<l  patriot  John  Adams,  who  afterwards 
attributed  the  honor  to  James  Otis,  said  in  1776 
that  the  "author  of  the  firi  "'Hrginia  Resolutions 
against  the  Stamp  Act  .  .  .  will  have  the  glory 
with  posterity  of  beginning  .  .  .  this  great  Revo- 
lution."' 

James  Otis  in  1765  declared  the  Virginia  Reso- 
lutions to  be  treasonable.  It  was  precisely  their 
treasonable  flavor  that  electrified  the  country, 
whue  the  fact  that  they  came  from  the  Old  Do- 
minion made  men  think  that  a  union  of  the  colo- 
nies, so  essential  to  successful  resistance,  might 


1 


« Upon  the  death  of  George  II.,  1760,  the  collectors  of  the  customs 
at  Joston  applied  for  new  writs  of  assistance.  The  grant  was  op- 
posed by  the  merchants,  and  the  question  was  argued  before  the 
Superior  Court.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  James  Otis  made  a 
speech  b  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  colonists  as  men  and  Englishmen. 
All  that  is  known  of  it  is  contained  in  some  rough  notes  taken  at  the 
time  by  John  Adams  {Works  of  John  Adams,  ii.,  125).  An  elabora- 
tion of  these  notes  was  printed  in  the  Massachusetts  Spy,  April 
id,  1773,  and  with  corrections  by  Adams  6fty  years  after  tlw  event 
in  William  Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis,  chs.  5-7.  This  is  the  speech 
to  which  Adams,  at  a  later  date,  attributed  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution. 


n        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

be  uchieved  in  spite  of  oil.     The  Old  Dominion, 
countetl  the  most  English  of  the  colonies  in  re- 
spect to  her  institutions  und  her  sympathies,  hud 
a  character  for  loyalty  that,  in  any  mutter  of  op- 
position to  Britain,  gave  double  weight  to  her 
action.     Easy-going  tobucco-planters,  Church  of 
England  men  all,  wer««  well  known  not  to  be  great 
admirers  of  the  precise  Puritans  of  New  Eng- 
land,  whose  moral  fervor  and  conscious  rectitude 
seemed  to  them  a  species  of  fanaticism  savoring 
niore  of  canting  hyiK>crisy  than  of  that  natural 
virtue  affected  by  men  of  parts.     Franklin  may 
well   hove  hod   Virginia  and   Massachusetts   in 
mind  when  he  said,  hut  u  few  years  earlier,  no  one 
need  fear  that  the  colonies  "will  unite  against 
their  own  nation  .  .  .  which  'tis  well  kno^vn  they 
all  love  much  more  than  they  love  one  another.'' 
Nor  could  anyone  have  supposed  that  the  "An- 
cient and  Loyal  Colony  of  Virginia "  would  out- 
Boston  Boston  in  asserting  the  rights  of  America. 
Yet  this  was  what  had  come  to  pass,  the  evidence 
of  which  was  the  printed  resolutions  now  circulat- 
ing far  and  wide  and  being  read  in  this  month  of 
July  when  it  was  being  noised  about  that  a  Con- 
gress was  proposed  for  the  coming  October.     The 
proposal  had  in  fact  come  from  Massachusetts 


THE  HKillTS  OK  A  NATION  79 

Bay  in  the  form  of  u  circular  letter  f  iviting  all 
the  culunien  to  .seiij  delegates  to  New  Y»>rk  for  »he 
I)ur|)u!ie  of  preparing  a  loyal  and  humble  "reprc- 
-otation  of  their  condition,"  and  of  imploring 
relief  from  the  King  and  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain. 

No  very  encouraging  resj^nse  was  immetliately 
forthcoming.    Tin*  .Vssemhly  of  New  Jersey  unani- 
mously declined  to  send  any  delegates,  although  it 
declarul  itself  "not  without  a  just  sensibility  re- 
specting the  late  acfs  of  Parliament,"  and  wishetl 
"such  other  colonies  as  think  proper  to  be  active 
every  success  they  can  loyally  and  reasonably  de- 
sire."    For  two  months  there  was  no  indication 
that  any  colony  would  think  it  "proper   to  be 
active";  but  during  August  and  September  the 
assemblies  of  six  colonies  chose  deputies  to  the  con- 
gress, and  when  that  body  finally  assembled  in 
October,  less  formally  designated  representatives 
from  three  other  colonies  appeared  upon  the  scene. 
The  Assenil)ly  of  New  Hampshire  dedined  to  take 
part.     Virginia,  Georgia,  and  South  Cr    Jina  were 
also  unrepresented,  which  was  perhaps  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  governors  of  those  provinces  refused 
to  call  the  assemblies  together  to  consider  the 
Massachusetts  circular  letter. 


80        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Of  the  27  members  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress, 
few  if  any  were  inclined  to  rash  or  venturesome 
measures.     It  is  reported  that  Lord  Melbourne,  as 
Prime  Minister  of  England,  once  remarked  to  his 
Cabinet,  "It  doesn't  matter  what  we  say,  but  we 
must  all  say  the  same  thing."     What  the  Stamp 
Act  Congress  said  was  to  be  sure  of  some  impor- 
tance, but  that  it  should  say  something  which  all 
could  agree  to  was  of  even  greater  importance. 
"There  ought  to  be  no  New  England  man,  no  New 
Yorker,  known  on  the  continent,"  wrote  Christo- 
pher Gadsden  of  South  Carolina,  "but  all  of  us 
Americans."    New  Yorkers  and  New  England 
men  could  not  indeed  be  so  easily  transformed  over 
night;  but  the  Staiup  Act  Congress  was  significant 
as  marking  a  kind  of  beginning  in  that  slow  and 
difficult  process.     After  eleven  days  of  debate,  in 
which  sharp  diflferences  of  opinion  were  no  doubt 
revealed,  a  declaration  of  rights  and  grievances  was 
at  last  adopted;  a  declaration  which  was  so  cau- 
tiously and  loyally  phrased  that  all  could  subscribe 
to  it,  and  which  was  perhaps  for  that  very  reason 
not  quite  satisfactory  to  anyone. 

His  Majesty's  subjects  in  the  colonies,  the  de- 
claration affirmed,  are  entitled  to  those  "inherent 
rights  and  liberties"  which  are  enjoyed  by  "his 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  81 

natural  born  subjects"  in  Great  Britain;  among 
which  rights  is  that  most  important  one  of  "not 
being  taxed  without  their  own  consent";  and  since 
the  people  of  the  colonies,  "from  local  circum- 
stances, cannot  be  represented  in  the  House  of 
Commons,"  it  follows  that  taxes  cannot  be  "im- 
posed upon  them,  but  by  their  respective  legisla- 
tures."   The  Stamp  Act,  being  a  direct  tax,  was 
therefore  declared  to  have  a  "manifest  tendency 
to  subvert  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  colonies. " 
Of  the  Sugar  Act,  which  was  not  a  direct  tax,  so 
much  could  not  be  said;  but  this  act  was  at  least 
"burthensome  and  grievous,"  being  subversive 
of  trade  if  not  of  liberty.    No  one  was  likely  to 
be  profoundly  stirred  by  the  declaration  of  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress,  in  this  month  of  October 
when  the  spirited  Virginia  Resolutions  were  every- 
where well  known. 

"The  frozen  politicians  of  a  more  northern 
government,"  according  to  the  Boston  Gazette, 
"say  they  [the  people  of  Virginia]  have  spoken 
treason";  but  the  Boston  Gazette,  for  its  part, 
thought  they  had  "spoken  very  sensibly. "  With 
much  reading  of  the  resolutions  and  of  the  com- 
mendatory remarks  with  which  they  were  every- 
where received,  the  treasonable  flavor  of  their 


.1 


% 


■  '  '■ 


82        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
boldest  phrases  no  doubt  grew  less  pronounced, 
and  high  talk  took  on  more  and  more  the  character 
of  good  sense.    During  the  summer  of  1765  the 
happy  phrase  of  Isaac  Barre  —  "these  sons  of  lib- 
erty"—  was  everywhere  repeated,  and  w.  3  put  on 
as  a  kind  of  protective  coloring  by  strong  patriots, 
who  henceforth  thought  of  themselves  as  Sons  of 
Liberty  and  no  traitors  at  all.     Rather  were  they 
traitors  who  would  in  any  way  justify  an  act  of 
tyranny;  most  of  all  those  so-called  Americans,  ac- 
cepting the  office  of  Stamp  Master,  who  cunningly 
aspired  to  make  a  farthing  profit  out  of  the  hateful 
business  of  enslaving  their  own  countrymen. 

Who  these  gentry  might  be  was  not  certainly 
known  until  early  August,  when  Jared  Inger  '1, 
himself  as  it  turned  out  one  of  the  miscreants, 
brought  the  commissions  over  from  London,  where- 
upon the  names  were  all  printed  in  the  papers.  It 
then  appeared  that  the  gentleman  appointed  to  dis- 
tribute the  stamps  in  Massachusetts  was  Andrew 
Oliver,  a  man  very  well  connected  in  that  province 
inid  of  great  influence  with  the  best  people,  not 
infrequently  entrusted  with  high  office  and  perqui- 
sites, and  but  recently  elected  by  the  unsuspecting 
Bostonians  to  represent  them  in  the  council  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.     It  seemed  inconsis- 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  83 

tent  that  a  man  so  often  honored  by  the  people 
should  meanwhile  pledge  himself  to  destroy  their 
liberties;  and  so  on  the  morning  of  the  14th  of 
August,  Mr.  Oliver's  effigy,  together  with  a  horned 
devil's  head  peeping  out  of  an  old  boot,  was  to 
be  seen  hanging  frcn  the  Liberty  Tree  at    the 
south  end  of  Bost„.i,  near  the  distillery  of  Thomas 
Chase,  brewer  and  warm  Son  of  Liberty.    During 
the  day  people  stopped  to  make  merry  over  the 
spectacle;  and  in  the  evening,  after  work  hours,  a 
great  crowd  gathered  to  see  what  would  happen. 
When  the  effigy  was  cut  down  and  carried  away, 
the  crowd  very  naturally  followed  xlong  through 
the  streets  and  through  the  Town  House,  justify- 
ing themselves —  many  respectable  people  were  in 
the  crowd  —  for  being  there  by  calling  out, "  Liberty 
and   Property  forever;  no  Stamp."    And   what 
with  tramping  and  shouting  in  the  warm  August 
evening,  the  whole  crowd  became  much  heated 
and  ever  more  enthusiastic,  so  that,  the  line  of 
march  by  some  chance  lying  past  the  new  stamp 
office  and  Mr.  Oliver's  house,  the  p.  ..pie  were  not 
to  be  restrained  from  destroying  the  former  and 
breaking  in  the  windows  of  the  latter,  in  detesta- 
tion of  the  hated  Stamp  Act  and  of  the  principle 
that  property  might  be  taken  without  consent. 


rj^ 


PI 


84        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Mr.  Oliver  hastened  to  resign  his  office,  which 
doubtless  led  many  people  to  think  the  methods 
taken  to  induce  him  to  do  so  were  very  good  ones 
and  such  as  might  well  be  made  further  use  of.   It 
was  in  fact  not  long  afterwards,  about  dusk  of  the 
evening  of  the  26th  of  August,  that  a  mob  of  men, 
more  deliberately  organized  than  before,  ransacked 
the  office  of  William  Story,  Deputy  Registrar  of  the 
Court  of  Admiralty,  and,  after  burning  the  obnox- 
ious records  kept  there,  they  forcibly  entered  the 
house,  and  the  cellar  too,  of  Benjamin  Hallowell, 
Comptroller  of  the  Customs.     "Then  the  Mon- 
sters," says  Deacon  Tudor,  "being  enflam'd  with 
Rum  &  Wine  which  they  got  in  sd.  Hallowell's 
cellar,  proceeded   with  Shouts  to  the  Duelling 
House  of  the  Hon-1.  Thos.  Hutchinson,  Esq.,  Lieut. 
Governor,  &  enter'd  in  a  voyalent  manner."    At 
that  moment  the  Lieutenant-Governor  was  sitting 
coT^   jrtabiy  at  dinner  and  had  barely  time  to 
.scape  with  his  family  before  the  massive  front 
door  was  broken  in  with   axes.    As  young  Mr. 
Hutchinson  went  out  by  the  back  way  he  heard 
someone  say:  "Damn   him,  he's  upstairs,  we'll 
have  him  yet."    They  did  not  indeed  accomplish 
this  purpose;  but  when  the  morning  broke  the 
splendid  house  was  seen  to  be  completely  gutted, 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  85 

the  partition  walls  broken  in,  the  roof  partly  off. 
and  the  priceless  possessions  of  the  owner  ruined' 
past  repair:  mahogany  and  walnut  furniture  fin- 
ished in  morocco  and  crimson  damask,  tapestries 
and    Turkey   carpets,    rare    paintings,    cabinets 
of  fine  glass  and  old  china,  stores  of  immacu- 
late linen,  India  paduasoy  gowns  and  red  Genoa 
robes,  a  choice  collection  of  books  richly  bound  in 
leather  and  many  manuscript  documents,  the  fruit 
of  thirty  years'  labor  in  collecting  — all  broken 
and  cut  and  cast  about  to  make  a  rubbish  heap 
and  a  bonfire.    From  the  mire  of  the  street  there 
was  afterwards  picked  up  a  manuscript  history  of 
Massachusetts  which  is  preserved  to  this  dav,  the 
soiled  pages  of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  the  Bos- 
ton library.     Mr.  Hutchinson  was  no  friend  of  the 
Stamp  Act;  but  he  was  a  rich  man,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  province,  and  brother-in-law  of 
Andrew  Oliver. 

Government  offered  the  usual  rewards  —  which 
were  never  claimed  — for  evidence  leading  to  the 
detection  of  any  persons  concerned  in  the  riots. 
Men  of  repute,  including  the  staunchest  patriots 
such  as  Samuel  Adams  and  Jonathan  Mayhew, 
expressed  their  abhorrence  of  mobs  and  of  all 
licentious  proceedings  in  general;  but  many  were 


■i! 


86        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

nevertheless  disposed  to  think,  with  good  Dea- 
con Tudor,  that  in  this  particular  instance  "the 
universal  Obhorrance  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  the 
cause  of  the  Mob's  riseing."    It  would  be  well  to 
punish  the  mob,  but  punishing  the  mob  would  not 
cure  the  evil  which  was  the  cause  of  the  mob; 
for  where  there  was  oppression  the  lower  sort  of 
people,  as  was  well  known,  would  be  sure  to  ex- 
press opposition  in  the  way  commonly  practiced 
by  them  everywhere,  in  London  as  well  as  in 
Boston,  by  gathering  in  the  streets  in  crowds,  m 
which  event  some  deplorable  excesses  were  bound 
to  follow,  however  much  deprecated  by  men  of 
substance  and  standing.    If  ministers  wished  the 
people  to  be  tranquil,  let  them  repeal  the  Stamp 
Act;  if  they  were  determined  to  persist  in  it,  and 
should  attempt  to  land  and  distribute  the  stamps, 
loyal  and  law-abiding  citizens,  however  much  they 
might  regret  the  fact,  could  only  say  that  similar 
disorders  were  very  likely  to  become  even  more 
frequent  and  more  serious  in  the  future  than  they 
had  been  in  the  past. 

As  the  first  of  November  approached,  that  being 
the  day  set  for  the  levying  of  the  tax,  attention 
and  discussion  came  naturally  to  center  on  the 
stamps  rather  than  on  the  Stamp  Act.     Crowds  of 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  87 

curious  people  gathered  wherever  there  seemed  a 
prospect  of  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  bundles  of 
stamped  papers.    Upon  their  arrival  the  papers 
had  to  be  landed;  they  could  therefore  be  seen;  and 
the  mere  sight  of  them  was  likely  to  be  a  suflBcient 
challenge  to  action.     Tf  seemed  a  simple  matter 
to  resist  a  law  which  couid  be  of  no  effect  without 
the  existence  of  certain  papers,  paper  being  a  sub- 
stance easily  disposed  of.     And  everywhere  in  fact 
the  stamps  were  disposed  of  —  disposed  of  by  mobs, 
with  the  tacit  consent  and  impalpable  encourage- 
ment of  many  men  who,  having  a  reputable  posi- 
tion to  maintain,  would  themselves  by  no  means 
endure  to  be  seen  in  a  common  crowd;  men  of 
good  estate  whom  no  one  could  think  of  as  coun- 
tenancers  of  violence,  but  who  were,  on  this  occa- 
sion, as  Mr.  Livingston  said,  "not  averse  to  a  little 
rioting"  on  condition  that  it  be  kept  within  bounds 
and  well  directed  to  the  attainment  of  their  just 
rights. 

A  little  rioting,  so  easy  to  be  set  on  foot,  was 
difficult  to  keep  within  reasonable  bounds,  as  Mr. 
Livingston  and  his  friends  in  New  York  soon  dis- 
covered, somewhat  to  their  chagrin.  In  New  York, 
even  after  the  stamps  were  sui  rendered  by  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Colden  and  safely  lodged  in  the 


N^ 


II. 


i!i|' 


88  THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
Town  House,  there  were  many  excesses  wholly  un- 
necessary to  the  attainment  -'  the  original  object. 
Mr.  Colden's  new  chariot,  certainly  never  designed 
to  carry  the  stamps,  was  burned;  and  on  repeated 
occasions  windows  were  broken  and  "pj.-  '  Jars" 
threatened  that  their  houses  would  otly  oe 

pulled  down.    Mr.  Livingston  was  hin  elf  the 
owner  of  houses,  had  an  immense  respect  for  prop- 
erty  rights  and  for  the  law  that  guaranteed  them, 
and  therefore  wished  very  much  that  the  lower 
sort  of  people  would  give  over  their  mobbish  prac- 
tices now  that  the  stamps  had  been  disposed  of. 
Since  the  law  could   not  now  operate  without 
stamps,  what  more  was  necessary  except  to  wait 
in  good  order,  patiently  denying  themselves  those 
activities  that  involved  a  violation  of  the  law, 
until  the  law  should  be  repealed?    The  Stamp  Act 
Congress  had  protested  in  a  proper  and  becom- 
mg  manner;  merchants  had  agreed  not  to  import 
British  goods;  the  Governor  had  closed  the  courts. 
Stopping  of  business  would  doubtless  be  annoy- 
ing and  might  very  likely  produce  some  distress. 
But  it  would  be  legal  and  it  would  be  eflFective: 
the  government  would  get  no  revenue;  British 
merchants  no  profit;  and  Americans  could  not  be 
charged  with  violating  a  law  the  failure  of  which 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  89 

was  primarily  due  to  the  fact  that  papers  indis- 
pensable to  its  apphcation  were,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  not  forthcoming. 

Mr.  Livingston,  happily  possessed  of  the  con- 
servative temperament,  was  disposed  to  achieve 
desired  ends  with  the  least  possible  disturbance 
of  his  own  affairs  and  those  of  his  country;  and 
most  men  of  independent  means,  landowners  and 
merchants  of  considerable  estates,  moneyed  men 
and  high  salaried  officials  whose  incomes  were  not 
greatly  affected  by  any  tem-orary  business  de- 
pression, were  likely  to  be  of  Mr.  Livingston's 
opinion,  particularly  in  this  matter  of  the  Stamp 
Act.      Sitting  comfortably  at  dinner  every  day 
and  well  knowing  where  they  could  lay  hands  on 
money  to  pay  current  bills,  they  enjoyed  a  high 
sense  of  being  defenders  of  liberty  and   at   the 
same  time  eminently  law-abiding  citizens.     They 
professed  a  decided  preference  for  nullifying  the 
Stamp  Act  without  violating  it.    Sitting  at  dinner 
over  their  wine,  they  swore  that  they  would  let  ships 
lie  in  harbor  and  rot  there  if  necessary,  and  would 
let  the  courts  close  for  a  year  or  two  years,  rather 
than  employ  taxed  papers  to  collect  their  just 
debts;  with  a  round  oath  they  bound  themselves 
to  it,  sealing  the  pledge,  very  likely,  by  sipping 


I. 

t 


r 


I  V 


J. 


90  THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
another  glass  of  Madeira.  In  the  defense  of  just 
rights.  Mr.  Livingston  and  his  conservative  friends 
were  willing  to  sacrifice  much:  they  foresaw  some 
months  of  business  stagnation,  which  thev  never- 
theless contemplated  with  equanimity,  bebg  pre- 
pared  to  tide  over  the  dull  time  by  living  in  a 
diminished  manner,  if  necessary  even  dispensing 
with  customary  bottles  of  Madeira  at  dinner. 

Men  of  radical  temperament,  having  generally 
less  regard  for  the  status  quo,  are  quick  to  see 
ulterior  motives  back  of  conservative  timidity  and 
solemn  profession  of  respect  for  law  and  order. 
It  was  so  in  the  case  of  the  Stamp  Act.   Small  shop- 
keepers  who  were  soon  sold  out  and  had  no  great 
stock  of   "old   moth-eaten   goods"   to  offer  at 
enhanced  prices,  rising  young  lawyers  whose  fees 
ceased  with  the  closing  of  the  courts,  artisans 
and  laborers  who  bought  their  dinners  (no  Ma- 
deira included)  with  their  daily  wage- these,  and 
indeed  all  the  lower  sort  of  people,  contemplated 
the  stopping  of  business  with  much  alarm.    Mr. 
John  Adams,  a  young  lawyer  of  Braintree  and 
Boston,  was  greatly  interested  in  the  quection  of 
the  courts   of  justice.     Were   the  courts   to  be 
closed  on  the  ground  that  no  legal  business  could 
be  done  without  stamped  papers?    Or  were  they 


THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION  01 

to  go  on  trying  cases,  enforcing  the  collection  of 
debts,  and  probating  wills  precisely  as  if  no  Stamp 
Act  had  ever  been  heard  of?    The  Boston  superior 
court  was  being  adjourned  continuously,  for  a 
fortnight  at   a   time,   through   the   influence  of 
Messrs.  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  to  the  great  and 
steadily  rising  wrath  of  youi  -  Mr.  Adams.     The 
courts  must  soon  be  opened,  he  said  to  himself; 
their  inactivity  "will  make  a  large  chasm  in  my 
affairs,  if  it  should  not  reduce  me  to  distress." 
Young  Mr.  Adams,  who  had,  no  less  than  Mr. 
Oliver,  a  family  to  support  and  children  to  provide 
for,  was  just  at  the  point  of  making  a  reputation 
and  winning  a  competence  "when  this  execrable 
project  was  set  on  foot  for  my  ruin  as  well  as 
that  of  America  in  general."    And  therefore  Mr. 
Adams,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  and  Mr.  Otis,  and 
Mr.  Gridley,  in  on'er  to  avert  the  ruiii  of  America 
in  gent  al,  were  "very  warm"  to  have  the  courts 
open  and  very  bitter  against   Messrs.  Hutchin- 
son and  Oliver  whose  "insolence  and  impudence 
and  chicanery"  in  the  matter  were  obvious,  and 
whose  secret  motives  might  easily  be  inferred.    Lit- 
tle wonder  if  these  men,  who  had  managed  by 
hook  or  crook  to  get  into  th^^ir  own  hands  or  into 
the  hands  of  their  families  nearly  all  the  lucrative 


i 


H        THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

offices  in  the  pro/ince,  now  sought  to  curry  favor 
with  ministers  in  ordtr  to  muintain  their  amazing 
a;»    adancy! 

fVhen  the  Stamp  Act  was  passed,  all  men  in  A  mer- 
ica  had  professed  theraselvi  .s.  and  were  thought  to 
,  be.  Sons  of  Liberty.    Even  Mr.  Hutchinson  had 
declared  himself  against  ministerial  measures.   But 
scarce  a  month  had  elapsed  since  the  law  was  to 
have  gone  into  effect  before  it  was  clear  to  the  dis- 
ceming  that,  for  all  their  professions,  most  of  the 
"better  sort"  were  not  genuine  Sons  of  Liberty 
at  all.  but  timid  sycophants,  pliant  instruments 
of  despotism,  far  more  intent  upo  ^  the  ruin  of  Mr. 
Adams  and  of  America  in  general  than  any  minis- 
ter could  be  shown  to  be.     For  the  policy  of  dis- 
pensing  with  activities  requiring  stamped  papers, 
much  lauded  by  these  gentry  as  an  effective  and 
constitutional  means  of  defeating  the  law.  was 
after  all  nothing  but  "a  sort  of  admittance  of  the 
legality  of  the  Stamp  Act.  and  h  .'  a  tend«"ucy  to 
enforce  it.  since  there  was  just  reason  to  appre- 
hend that  the  secret  enemies  of  liberty  had  actually 
a  design  to  introduce  it  by  the  necessity  to  which 
the  people  would  be  reduced  by  the  cessation  of 
business. "    It  was  well,  therefore,  in  view  of  such 
insidious  designs  of  secret  enemies,  that  the  people. 


1 


THE  RIGHTS  OP  A  NATION  03 

even  to  the  lowMt  ranks,  should  become  "more 
attentive  to  their  liberties,  and  more  inquisitive 
about  them,  and  more  determined  to  defend  them, 
than  they  were  ever  before  known  or  had  occasion' 
to  be." 

To  defend  their  liberti.'s,  not  against  ministers 
'  ut   against    niinisteriul   tools,   who   were   secret 
betrayers  of  America,  tme   patriots  accordingly 
banded  themselves  in  societies  wliic!:  took  to  them- 
selves the  name  of  Sons  of  Liberty  and  of  which  the 
object  was.  by  "putting  business  in  motion  again, 
in  the  usual  channels,  without  stamps,"  to  prevent 
the  Stamp  Act  ever  being  enforced.    Such  a  soci- 
ety composed  mainly  of  the  lower  orders  of  people 
and  led  by  rising  yoimg  lawyers,  was  formed  in 
New  York.     On  January  7,  at  Mr.  Howard's  coffee 
house,  abandoning  the  secrecy  which  had  hitherto 
veiled  their  activities,  its  members  declared  to  the 
world  their  principles  and  the  motives  that  would 
determine  their  action  in  the  future: 

Hesohed-  That  we  will  go  to  the  last  extremity  and 
venture  our  lives  and  fortunes  effectively  to  prevent 
the  said  Stamp  Act  from  ever  taking  place  in  this  city 
and  provmce;  Resoked:  That  any  person  who  shall 
deliver  out  or  receive  any  instrument  of  writing  upon 
stamped  paper  .  .  •  shall  incur  the  highest  resentment 


I 


:|l^ 


94         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

of  this  society,  and  be  branded  with  everlasting  infamy 
Resolred:  That  the  people  who  carry  on  business  as 
formerly  on  unstamped  paper  .  .  .  shall  be  protected 
to  the  utmost  power  of  this  society. 

Malicious  men  said  that  the  Sons  of  Liberty  were 
"much  concerned  that  the  gentlemen  of  fortune 
don't  publically  join  them,"  for  which  reason  the 
society  "formed  a  committee  of  correspondence 
with  the  Liberty  Boys  in  the  neighboring  provin- 
ces. "     In  February,  the  society  did  in  fact  appoint 
such  a  committee,  which  sent  out  letters  to  all  the 
counties  of  New  York  and  to  all  the  colonies  ex- 
cept Georgia,  proposing  the  formation  of  an  inter- 
colonial association  of  the  true  Sons  of  Liberty;  to 
which  letters  many  replies  were  received,  some  of 
which  are  still  preserved  among  the  papers  of  the 
secretary,  Mr.  John  Lamb.     The  general  sense  of 
these  letters  was  that  an  intercolonial  association 
and  close  correspondence  were  highly  necessary  in 
view  of  the  presence,  in  nearly  every  colony,  of 
many  "secret  and  inveterate  enemies  of  liberty," 
and  of  the  desirability  of  keeping  "a  watchful  eye 
over  all  those  who,  from  the  nature  of  their  offices, 
vocations,  or  dispositions,  may  be  the  most  likely 
to  introduce  the  use  of  stamped  paper,  to  the  total 
subversion  of  the  British  constitution." 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  95 

No  doubt  the  society  kept  its  watchful  eye  on 
every  unusual  activity  and  all  suspicious  char- 
acters,  but  to  what  extent  it  succeeded  in  "putting 
business  in  motion  again,  in  the  usual  channels, 
without  stamps,"  cannot  be  said.     Both  before 
and  after  t^    society  was  founded,  much  business 
was  car;  td  on  in  vu/.tion  of  the  law:  newspapers 
and  par  pMels  coatinued  to  flourish  in  the  land; 
the  infev.-.i   crcvts  at  least  were  sooner  or  later 
opened  in  nearly  every  colony;   and  not  infre- 
quently unstamped  clearance  papers  were  issued 
to  shipmasters  willing  to  take  the  risk  of  seizure  in 
London  or  elsewhere.     Mr.  John  Hancock,  easily 
persuading  himself  that  there  should  be  no  risk, 
shipped  a  cargo  of  oil  with  the  Boston  packet  in 
December.     "I  am  under  no  apprehensions,"  he 
wrote  his  London  agent.     "Should  there  be  any 
Difficulty  in  London  as  to  Marshall's  clearance. 
You  will  please  to  represent  the  circumstances 
that  no  stamps  could  be  obtained,  ...  in  which 
case  I  think  I  am  to  be  justified,  &  am  not  liable 
to  a  seizure,  or  even  run  any  risque  at  all,  as  I  have 
taken  the  Step  of  the  Law.  and  made  application 
for  clearance,  &  can  get  no  other. " 

Notwithstanding  such  practices,  which  were  fre- 
quent enough,  it  was  a  dull  winter,  with  little  profit 


06 


THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 


.1 


i\ 


flowing  into  the  coffers  of  Mr.  Hancock,  with  low 
wages  or  none  at  all  for  worthy  artisans  and  labor- 
ers; so  that  it  must  often  have  seemed,  as  Governor 
Moore  said,  "morally  impossible  that  the  people 
here  can  subsist  any  time  under  such  inconven- 
iences as  they  have  brought  on  themselves."  Such 
inconveniences  became  more  irksome  as  time 
passed,  with  the  result  that,  during  the  cold  and 
dreary  months  of  February  and  March,  it  became 
every  day  a  more  pressing  question,  particularly 
for  the  poor,  to  know  whether  the  bad  times  would 
end  at  last  in  the  repeal  or  the  admission  of  the 
tyrannical  act. 

Confronted  willi  Llils  diflBcult  dilemma,  the  faith- 
ful Sons  of  Liberty  were  preparing  in  April  to  as- 
semble a  continental  congress  as  a  last  resort, 
when  rumors  began  to  spread  that  Parliament  was 
on  the  point  of  carrying  the  repeal.  The  proj- 
ect of  a  congress  was  accordingly  abandoned,  and 
everywhere  recrimination  gave  place  to  rejoicing. 
On  April  21,  1766,  the  vigilant  Boston  Sons  voted 
that  when  the  rumors  should  be  confirmed  they 
would  celebrate  the  momentous  event  in  a  befit- 
ting manner  —  would  celebrate  it  "Under  the 
deepest  Sense  of  Duty  and  Loyalty  to  our  Most 
Gracious  Sovereign  King  George,  and  in  respect 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  A  NATION  97 

and  Gratitude  to  the  Patriotic  Ministry,  Mr. 
Pitt,  and  the  Glorious  Majority  of  both  Houses 
of  Pii  •liament,  by  whose  Influence,  under  Divine 
Providence,  against  a  most  strenuous  Opposition, 
a  happy  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  so  unconstitu- 
tional as  well  as  Grievous  to  His  Majesty's  good 
Subjects  of  America,  is  attained;  whereby  our 
incontestible  Right  of  Internal  Taxation  remains 
to  us  inviolate." 

7 


[; 


II 


ll 


li  I 


CHAPTER  IV 

DEFINING    THE    ISSUE 

A  pepper-corn,  in  acknowledgement  of  the  right,  is  of  more  value 
than  millions  without  it.  —  George  Grermlle. 

A  perpetual  jealousy  respecting  liberty,  is  absolutely  requisite 
in  all  free  states.  —  John  Dickinson. 

Good  Americans  everywliei-e  celebrated  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act  with  much  festivity  and  joyful 
noises  in  the  streets,  and  with  "genteel  entertain- 
ments" in  taverns,  where  innumerable  toasts  were 
drunk  to  Liberty  and  to  its  English  defenders. 
Before  his  house  on  Beacon  Hill,  M^.  John  Han- 
cock, on  occasion  a  generous  man,  erected  a  plat- 
form and  pla'^ed  there  a  pipe  of  Madeira  which 
was  broached  for  all  comers.  At  Colonel  In- 
gersoU's,  where  twenty-eight  gentlemen  attended 
to  take  dinner,  fifteen  toasts  were  drunk,  "and 
very  loyal  they  were,  and  suited  to  the  occasion"; 
upon  which  occasion,  we  are  told,  Mr.  Hancock 
again  "treated  every  person  with  cheerfulness." 
Throughout  Ihe  land  men  with  literary  gifts,  or 

98 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  99 

instincts,  delivered  themselves  of  vigorous  free 
verse,  founded  upon  the  antithesis  of  Freedom  and 
Tyranny,  and  enforcing  the  universal  truth  that 
"in  the  unequal  war  Oppressors  fall,  the  hate,  con- 
tempt, and  endless  curse  of  all."  In  New  York, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  King's  birthday,  an  ox  was 
roasted  whole  in  the  Fields,  and  tweniy  kegs  of 
beer  were  opened  for  a  great  dinner  at  the  King's 
Arms;  and  afterwards,  through  the  generosity  of 
the  Assembly  of  that  province,  there  was  erected 
on  the  Bowling  Green  a  mounted  statue  —  made 
of  lead  but  without  present  intention  of  being 
turned  into  bullets  —  representing  His  Majesty 
King  George  the  Third,  of  ever  glorious  memory, 
the  Restorer  of  Liberty. 

The  joyful  Americans  could  nol  know  how  little 
King  George  aspired  to  be  thought  the  Restorer 
of  Liberty.  In  reality  he  was  extremely  sdlky  in 
his  silent,  stubborn  way  over  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  vexed  most  particularly  at  the 
part  which  he  himself  had  been  forced  to  play  in  it. 
The  idea  of  a  Patriot  King,  conceived  by  Lord 
Bolingbroke  (one-time  Jacobite  exile)  and  in- 
stilled into  the  mind  of  the  young  Hanoverian 
monarch  by  an  ambitious  mother,  had  little 
to  do  with  liberty,  either  British  or  colonial,  but 


i 


•*  'fi 


'i 


100      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

had  much  to  do  with  authority.  The  Patriot 
King  was  to  be  a  king  indeed,  seeking  advice  of  all 
virtuous  men  of  whatever  connections,  without 
being  bound  by  any  man  or  faction  of  men.  It 
was  not  to  restore  liberty,  nor  yet  to  destroy  it, 
but  to  destroy  factions,  that  the  King  was  am- 
bitious; and  for  this  purpose  he  desired  a  minis- 
try that  would  do  his  bidding  without  too  much 
question.  If  Mr.  Grenville  did  not  satisfy  His 
Majesty,  it  was  not  on  account  of  the  Stamp  Act, 
in  respect  to  which  the  King  was  wholly  of  Mr. 
Grenville's  opinion  that  it  was  a  just  law  and 
ought  to  be  enforced.  In  July,  1765,  when  Mr. 
Grenville  was  dismissed,  there  had  indeed  as  yet 
been  no  open  resistance  in  America;  and  if  the 
King  had  been  somewhat  annoyed  by  the  high 
talk  of  his  loyal  subjects  in  Virginia,  he  had  been 
annoyed  much  more  by  Mr.  Grenville,  who  was 
disposed,  in  spite  of  his  outward  air  of  humility 
and  solemn  protestations  of  respect,  to  be  very 
firm  with  His  Majesty  in  the  matter  of  ministerial 
prerogative,  reading  him  from  time  to  time  care- 
fully prepared  pedantic  little  curtain  lectures  on 
the  customs  of  the  Constitution  and  the  duties  of 
kings  under  particular  circumstances. 

Unable  to  endure  Mr.  Grenville  longer,  the  King 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  101 

turned  to  Mr.  Pitt.     This  stutcsman,  although  ex- 
tremely (loniineering  in  the  House,  was  much  sub- 
dued in  the  presence  of  his  sovereign,  and  along 
with  many  defects   had   one  great  virtue  in  his 
Majesty's  eyes,  which   was  that  he  shared   the 
King's  desire  to  destroy  the  factions.     The  King 
was  accordingly  ready  to  receive  the  Great  Com- 
moner, even  though  he  insisted  on  bringing  "the 
Constitution,"  and  Earl  Temple  into  the  bargain, 
with  him  to  St.  James's  Palace.     But  when  it 
appeared  that  Earl   Temple  was  opposed  to  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  Mr.  Pitt  declined  after 
all  to  come  to  St.  James's  on  any  terms,  even 
with  his   beloved   Constitution;    whereupon   the 
harassed  young  King,  rather  than  submit  again  to 
Mr.  Grenville's  lectures,  surrendered  himself,  tem- 
porarily, to  the  old-line  Whigs  under  the  lead  of 
the  Marquis  of  Rockingham.     In  all  the  negoti- 
ations which  ended  in  this  unpromising  arrange- 
ment of  the  King's  business,  the  Stamp  Act  had 
apparently  not  been  once  mentioned;  except  that 
Mr.  Grenville,  upon  retiring,  had  ventured  to  say 
to  His  Majesty,  as  a  kind  of  abbreviated  parting 
liomily,  that  if  "any  man  ventured  to  defeat  the 
regulations  laid  down  for  the  colonies,  by  a  slack- 
ness in  the  execution,  he  [Mr.  Grenville]  should 


.1 


I>     'I 


J: 


■  ■ 


ill 


102      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

loo!:  upon  him  as  a  criminal  and  the  betrayer  of 
his  country." 

The  Marquis  of  Rockingham  and  his  friends 
had  no  intention  of  betraying  their  country.    They 
had,  perhaps,  when  they  were  thus  accident  ily 
lifted  to  power,  no  very  definite  intentions  of  any 
sort.     Respecting  the  Stamp  Act,  as  most  alarm- 
ing reports  began  to  come  in  from  America,  His 
Majesty's  Opposition,  backed  by  the  landed  in- 
terest and  led   by  Mr.  Grenville  and  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,   knew   its  mind   much   sooner  than 
ministers  knew  theirs.     America  was  in  open  re- 
bellion, they  said,  and  so  far  from   doing  any- 
thing about  it  ministers  were  not  even  prepared, 
four   months    after   disturbances   began,    to   lay 
necessary  information  before  the  House.     Under 
pressure  of  such  talk,  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham 
had  to  make  up  his  mind.     It  would  be  odd  and 
contrary  to  well-established  precedent  for  minis- 
ters to  adopt  a  policy  already  outlined  by  Oppo- 
sition; and  in  view  of  the  facts  that  good  Whig 
tradition,  even   if  somewhat   obscured   in   latter 
days,  committed  them  to  some  kind  of  liberalism, 
that  the  City  and  the  mercantile  interest  thought 
Mr.  Grenville's  measures  disastrous  to  trade,  and 
that  they  were  much  in  need  of  Mr.  Pitt's  elo- 


W     ^ 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  103 

(|uence  to  carry  them  through,  ministers  at  last, 
in  January,  1766,  declared  for  the  repeal. 

Now  that  it  was  a  question  of  repealing  Mr. 
Grenville's  measures,  serious  attention  was  given 
to  them;  and  honorable  members,  in  the  notable 
debate  of  1766,  learned  much  about  America 
and  the  rights  of  Englishmen  which  they  had 
not  knowi  before.  Lord  Mansfield,  the  most 
eminent  le,  '  authority  in  England,  argued  that 
the  Stamp  Act  was  clearly  within  the  power  of 
Parliament,  while  Lord  Camden,  whose  opinion 
was  by  no  means  to  be  despised,  staked  his  repu- 
tation that  the  law  was  unconstitutional.  Mr. 
Grenville,  in  his  precise  way,  laid  it  down  as  axio- 
matic that  since  "Great  Britain  protects  America, 
America  is  therefore  bound  to  yield  obedience"; 
if  not,  he  desired  to  know  when  Americans  were 
emancipated.  Whereupon  Mr.  Pitt,  springing  up, 
desired  to  know  when  they  were  made  slaves. 
The  Great  Commoner  rejoiced  that  America  had 
resisted,  and  expressed  the  belief  that  three  mil- 
lions of  pe<  lie  so  dead  to  all  the  feelings  of  lib- 
erty as  voluntarily  to  submit  to  be  made  slaves 
would  be  very  fit  instruments  to  make  slaves  of  all 
Englishmen. 
Honorable  members  were  more  disposed  to  lis- 


fj.l 


ill' 


104       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

ten  to  Mr.  Pitt  than  to  vote  with  him;  and  were 
doubtless  less  influenced  by  his  hot  eloquence  than 
by  the  representations  of  English  merchants  to  the 
effect  that  trade  was  being  ruined  by  Mr.  Gran- 
ville's measures.  Sir  George  Seville,  honorable 
member  for  Yorkshire,  spoke  the  practical  mind 
of  business  men  when  he  wrote  to  Lord  Rocking- 
ham: "Our  trade  is  hurt;  whi.t  the  devil  have  you 
been  doing?  For  our  part,  we  don't  pretend  to 
understand  your  politics  and  American  matters, 
but  our  trade  is  hurt:  pray  remedy  it,  and  a  plague 
of  you  if  you  won't."  This  was  not  so  eloquent 
as  Mr.  Pitt's  speech,  but  still  very  eloquent  in  its 
way  and  more  easily  followed  than  Mr.  Pitt's 
theory  that  "taxation  is  no  part  of  the  governing 
'>r  legislative  power." 

Oonsiitutional  arguments,  evenly  bal.  need  pro 
and  con,  were  not  certain  to  change  many  minds, 
while  such  brief  statements  as  that  of  Sir  George 
Seville,  although  clearly  revealing  the  opinion 
of  that  gentleman,  did  little  to  enlighten  the 
House  on  the  merits  of  the  question.  That 
members  might  have  every  opportunity  to  inform 
themselves  about  America,  the  ministers  thought 
it  worth  while  to  have  Benjamin  Franklin  of 
Philadelphia,  printer  and  Friend  of  the  Human 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE 


105 


Race,  brought  bcforo  the  bar  the  House  to  make 
such  statements  of  fact  or  opinion  us  might  be 
(K'sired  of  him.  The  examination  was  a  long  one; 
the  qu^^-stions  very  nmch  to  the  point;  the  replies 
very  ready  and  often  more  to  tlie  point  than  the 
questions.  With  much  exact  infonmition  the 
provincial  printer  maintained  that  the  colonists, 
having  taxed  'themselves  heavily  in  support  of  the 
last  war,  were  not  well  able  to  pay  more  tuxes, 
and  that,  even  if  they  were  abundantly  able,  the 
sugar  duties  and  the  stamp  tax  were  improper 
measures.  The  stamps,  in  remote  districts,  would 
fretjuently  require  more  in  postage  to  obtain  than 
the  value  of  the  tux.  The  sugar  duties  had  already 
greatly  diminished  the  volume  of  coKmial  trade, 
while  both  the  duties  and  the  tax,  having  to  be 
paid  in  silver,  were  draining  America  of  its  specie 
and  thus  making  it  impossible  for  merchants  to 
import  from  England  to  the  same  extent  us  for- 
merly. It  was  well  known  that  at  the  moment 
Americans  were  indebted  to  English  merchants  to 
the  amount  of  several  million  pounds  sterling, 
which  they  were  indeed  willing,  us  English  mer- 
chants themselves  said,  but  unable  to  pay.  Neces- 
sarily, therefore,  Americans  were  beginning  to 
manufacture  their  own  cloth,  which  they  could 


IlI 


f 


Pi 


*f 


I, 


106       THE  EVE  OF  THE  11E\0LLTI0N 

very  well  do.  Before  their  old  clothes  were  worn 
out  they  "would  have  new  oues  of  their  own 
making." 

Against  the  Stump  Act,  honorable  members 
were  reminded,  there  was  a  s|)eciul  objection  to 
be  urged.  It  wus  thought  with  gotxl  reason  to  be 
unconstitutional,  which  would  make  its  appli- 
cation difficult,  if  not  intpussible.  Troops  might 
no  doubt  be  sent  to  enforce  it,  but  troops  would 
find  no  enemy  to  contend  with,  no  men  in  arms; 
they  wtiuld  find  no  rebellion  in  America,  although 
they  might  indeed  create  one.  Pressed  by  Mr. 
Towuahend  to  say  whether  the  colonies  might  not, 
on  the  ground  of  Magna  Carta,  as  well  deny  the 
validity  of  external  as  internal  tuxes,  the  Doctor 
was  not  ready  to  commit  himself  on  that  point. 
It  was  true  many  arguments  had  lately  been  used 
in  England  to  show  Americans  that,  if  Parliament 
has  no  right  to  tax  them  internally,  it  has  none  to 
tax  them  externally,  or  to  make  any  other  law  to 
bind  them;  in  reply  to  which,  he  could  only  say 
that  "at  present  they  do  not  reason  so,  but  in 
time  they  may  possibly  be  convinced  by  these 
arguments." 

Whether  the  Parlianuiil  was  truly  enlightened 
and  resolved  by  statistical  information  and  lofty 


DEFTXIXC  TnE  ISSUE  107 

nmstilutionul  arjjiiinont  is  not  ctTtninly  known; 
Imf  it  is  known  thai  tlu-King.  \vlio>v  stoady  mind 
«li<l  not  readily  clianj,'**,  was  still  opposed  to  the 
H'peal,  a  fact  supposed  to  he  not  without  influ- 
ence in  unsettling  the  opinions  of  some  honorable 
members.  Lord  Mansfield  had  discreetly  advise<l 
His  Majesty  that  although  it  was  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  constitution  to  "endeavour  by  His 
Majesty's  name  to  carry  (juestions  in  Parliament, 
yet  where  the  lawful  rights  of  the  King  an<l  Parlia- 
ment were  to  be  asserted  and  maintained,  he 
thought  the  making  His  Majesty's  opinion  in 
support  of  those  rights  to  be  known,  was  very  fit 
and  becoming." 

The  distinction  was  subtle,  but  perhaps  not 
too  subtle  for  a  great  lawyer.  It  was  apparently 
not  too  subtle  for  a  Patriot  King,  since  certain 
noble  lords  who  could  be  counted  on  to  know  the 
King's  wishes  conveyed  information  to  the  proper 
persons  that  those  who  found  it  against  their 
conscience  to  vote  for  the  repeal  would  not  for 
that  reason  be  received  coldly  at  St.  James's 
Palace.  In  order  to  preserve  the  constitution  as 
well  as  to  settle  the  question  of  the  repeal  on  its 
merits,  Lord  Rockingham  and  the  Earl  of  Shel- 
bume  obtained  an  interview  with    the  King  at 


\\ 


J  I 


f  i 


r      4 


108        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

which  they  pointed  out  to  him  the  manifest  irregu- 
larity of  such  a  procedure,  and  in  addition  ex- 
pressed their  conviction  that,  on  account  of  the 
high  excitement  in  the  City,  failure  to  repeal  the 
Stamp  Act  would  be  attended  with  very  serious 
consequences.  Whether  to  preserve  the  Constitu- 
tion, or  to  allow  the  repeal  to  be  determined  on 
its  merits,  or  for  some  other  reason,  the  King 
at  last  gave  in  writing  his  consent  to  the  minis- 
ters' measure.  On  February  22,  by  a  vote  of  275 
to  167,  Mr.  Conway  was  given  leave  to  bring  in 
the  bill  for  a  total  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  The 
bill  was  accordingly  brought  in,  passed  by  both 
houses,  and  on  March  18  assented  to  by  the  King. 
In  the  colonies  the  repeal  was  thought  to  be  a 
victory  for  true  principles  of  government,  at  least 
a  tacit  admission  by  the  mother  country  that 
the  American  interpretation  of  the  Constitution 
was  the  correct  one.  No  Englishman  denied  that 
the  repeal  was  an  American  victory;  and  there 
were  some,  like  Pitt  and  Camden,  who  preferred 
the  constitutional  theories  of  Daniel  Dulaney '  to 
those  of  George  Grenville.    But  most  Englishmen 

'  Daniel  Dulaney,  of  Maryland,  was  the  author  of  a  pamphlet 
entitled  Considerations  on  the  Propriety  of  Imposing  Taxes  on  the  Brit- 
ish Colonies.  Pitt,  in  his  speech  on  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  re- 
ferred to  this  pamphlet  as  a  masterly  performance. 


V      t 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  109 

who  took  the  trouble  to  have  any  views  on  such 
recondite  matters,  having  in  general  a  poor  opin- 
ion of  provincial  logic,  easily  dismissed  the  whole 
matter   with   the  convincing  phrase  of  Charles 
Townshend  that  the  distinction  between  internal 
and  external  taxes  was  "perfect  nonsense."    The 
average  Briton,  1  iking  it  for  granted  that  all  the 
subtle  legal   aspects  of  the  question   had  been 
thoroughly  gone  into  by  Lord  Mansfield,  was  con- 
tent to  read  Mr.  Soame  Jonyns,  a  writer  of  verse 
and  member  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  who  in  a  lei- 
sure hour  had  recently  turned  his  versatile  mind 
to  the  consideration  of  colonial  rights  with  the 
happiest   results.      In   twenty-three   very    small 
pages  he  had  disposed  of  the  "Objections  to  the 
Taxation  of  Our  American  Colonies"  in  a  man- 
ner highly  satisfactory  to  himself  and  doubtless 
also  to  the  average  reading  Briton,  who  under- 
stood constitutional  questions  best  when  they  were 
"briefly  considered,"  and  when  they  were  humor- 
ously expounded  in  pamphlets  that  could  be  had 
for  sixpence. 

Having  a  logical  mind,  Mr.  Jenyns  easily  per- 
ceived that  taxes  could  be  objected  to  on  two 
grounds:  the  ground  of  right  and  the  ground  of 
expediency.    In  his  opinion  the  right  of  Parlia- 


>1 


».      I 


110      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

ment  to  lay  taxes  on  America  and  the  expediency 
of  doing  so  at  the  present  moment  were  proposi- 
tions so  clear  that  any  man,  in  order  not  to  bring 
his  intelligence  in  question,  needed  to  apologize 
for  undertaking  to  defend  them.  Mr.  Jenyns 
wished  it  known  that  he  was  not  the  man  to  carry 
owls  to  Athens,  and  that  he  would  never  have 
thought  it  necessary  to  prove  either  the  right  or 
the  expediency  of  taxing  our  American  colonies, 
"had  not  many  arguments  been  lately  flung  out 
.  .  .  which  with  insolence  equal  to  their  absurdity 
deny  them  both. "  With  this  conciliatory  prelimi- 
nary disclaimer  of  any  lack  of  intelligence  on  his 
own  part,  Mr.  Jenyns  proceeded  to  point  out,  in 
his  most  happy  vein,  how  uu  ^stantial  Ameri- 
can reasoning  really  appeared  w  brushing  aside 
befogging  irrelevancies,  you  on  t  to  the  heart 
of  the  question. 

The  heart  of  the  question  was  the  proposition 
that  there  should  be  no  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation; upon  which  principle  it  was  necessary  to 
observe  only  that  many  individuals  in  England, 
such  as  copyholders  and  leaseholders,  and  many 
communities,  such  as  Manchester  and  Birmingham, 
were  taxed  in  Parliament  without  being  represented 
there.    If  Americans  quoted  you  "Lock,  Sidney, 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  m 

Selden,  and  many  other  great  names  to  prove  that 
every  Englishman  ...  is  still  represented  in  Par- 
liament," he  would  only  ask  why,  since  English- 
men  are  all  represented  in  Parliament,  are  not  all 
Americans  represented  in  exactly  the  same  way.? 
Either  Manchester  is  not  represented  or  Massachu- 
setts is.     "Are  Americans  not  British  subjects.'' 
Are  they  not  Englishmen?    Or    are   they    only 
Englishmen  when  they  solicit  protection,  but  not 
Englishmen  when  taxes  are  required  to  enable  this 
country  to  protect  them.""    Americans  said  they 
had  Assemblies  of  their  own  to  tax  them,  which  was 
a  privilege  granted  them  by  charter,  without  which 
"that  liberty  which  every  Englishman  has  a  right 
to  is  torn  from  them,  they  are  all  slaves,  and  all 
is  lost."     Colonial  charters  were,  however,  "un- 
doubtedly no  more  than  those  of  all  corporations, 
which  empower  them  to  make  bye-laws. "    As  for 
"  liberty,"  the  word  had  so  many  meanings,"  having 
within  a  few  years  been  used  as  a  synonymous  term 
for  Blasphemy,  Bawdy,  Treason,  Libels,  Strong 
Beer,  and  Cyder,"  that  Mr.  Jenyns  could  not 
presume  to  say  what  it  meant. 

Against  the  expediency  of  the  taxes,  Mr.  Jenyns 
found  that  two  objections  had  been  raised:  that 
the  time  was  improper  and  the  manner  wrong. 


nt 


ii;  ; 


y 


112      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

As  to  the  manner,  the  colonies  themselves  had  in 
a  way  prescribed  it,  since  they  had  not  been  able 
at  the  request  of  ministers  to  suggest  any  other. 
The  time  Mr.  Jenyns  thought  most  propitious,  a 
point  upon  which  he  grew  warm  and  almost  serious. 

Can  any  time  be  more  proper  to  require  some  assis- 
tance from  our  colonies,  to  preserve  to  themselves  their 
present  safety,  than  when  this  country  is  almost  un- 
done by  procuring  it?  Can  any  time  be  more  proper 
to  impose  some  tax  upon  their  trade,  than  when  they 
are  enabled  to  rival  us  in  their  manufactures  by  the 
encouragement  and  protection  which  we  have  given 
them?  Can  any  time  be  more  proper  to  oblige  them 
to  settle  handsome  incomes  on  their  governors,  than 
when  we  find  them  unable  to  procure  a  subsistence  on 
any  other  terms  than  those  of  breaking  all  their  in- 
structions, and  betraying  the  rights  of  their  Sovereign? 
.  .  .  Can  there  be  a  more  proper  time  to  force  them 
to  maintain  an  army  at  their  expence,  than  when  that 
array  is  necessary  for  their  own  protection,  and  we 
are  utterly  unable  to  support  it?  Lastly,  can  there  be 
a  more  proper  time  for  this  mother  country  to  leave 
off  feeding  out  of  her  own  vitals  these  children  whom 
she  has  nursed  up,  than  when  they  are  arrived  at  such 
strength  and  maturity  as  to  be  well  able  to  provide 
for  themselves,  and  ought  rather  with  filial  du*  •  to 
give  some  assistance  to  her  distresses? 

Americans,  after  all,  were  not  the  only  ones  who 
might  claim  to  have  a  grievance! 


n 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  lis 

It  was  upon  a  lighter  note,  not  to  end  in  anti- 
climax, that  Mr.  Jenyns  concluded  his  able  pam- 
phlet. He  had  heard  it  hinted  ♦I.at  allowing  the 
colonies  representation  in  Pprliament  would  be  a 
simple  plan  for  making  taxes  legal.  The  imprac- 
ticability of  this  plan,  he  would  not  go  into,  since 
the  plan  itself  had  nowhere  been  seriously  pressed, 
but  he  would,  upon  that  head,  offer  the  foUowmg 
consideration: 

I  have  lately  seen  so  many  specimens  of  the  great 
powers  of  speech  of  which  these  American  gentlemen 
are  possessed,  that  I  should  be  much  afraid  that  the 
sudden  importation  of  so  much  eloquence  at  once  would 
greatly  endanger  the  safety  of  the  government  of  this 
country.  ...  If  we  can  avail  ourselves  of  these  taxes 
on  no  other  condition,  I  shall  never  look  upon  it  as  a 
measure  of  frugality,  being  perfectly  satisfied  that  in 
the  end,  it  will  be  much  cheaper  for  us  to  pay  their 
army  than  their  orators. 


Mr.  Jenyns's  pamphlet,  which  could  be  had  for 
sixpence,  was  widely  read,  with  much  apprecia- 
tion for  its  capital  wit  and  extraordinary  common 
sense;  more  widely  read  in  England  than  Mr. 
James  Otis's  Rights  of  the  British  Colonies  Asserted 
and  Proved  or  Daniel  Dulaney's  Consideraiims  on 
the  Propriety  of  Imposing  Taxes  on  the  British  Colo- 


i 


'fj  i 


fi 


114       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

nies;  and  it  therefore  did  much  more  than  these 
able  pamphlets  to  clarify  English  opinion  on  the 
rights  of  Parliament  and  the  expediency  of  taxing 
America.    No  one  could  deny  that  Government 
had  yielded  in  the  face  of  noisy  clamor  and  forci- 
ble resistance.    To  yield  under  the  circumstances 
may  have  been  wise  or  not;  but  Government 
had  not  yielded  on  any  ground  of  right,  but  had 
on  the  contrary  most  expressly  affirmed,  in  the 
Declaratory  Act,  that  "the  King's  Majesty,  by 
and  with  the  advice  of  the  lords  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral, and  commons  of  Great  Britain,  in  Parlia- 
ment assembled,  had,  hath,  and  of  right  ought 
to  have,  full  power  and  authority  to  make  such 
laws  and  statutes  of  sufficient  force  and  validity 
to  bind  the  colonies  and  people  of  America,  sub- 
jects of  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  in  all  cases 
whatsoever."    Government  had  not  even  denied 
the  expediency  of  taxing  America,  the  total  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  modification  of  the 
Sugar  Act  having  been  carried  on  a  consideration 
of  the  inexpediency  of  these  particular  taxes  only. 
Taxes  not  open  to  the  same  objection  might  in 
future  be  found,  and  doubtless  must  be  found, 
inasmuch  as   the   troops    were   still  retained   in 
America  and  the  Quavering  Act  continued  in 


sr  I 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  115 

force  there.  For  new  taxes,  however,  it  would 
doubtless  be  necessary  to  await  the  formation  of  a 
new  ministry. 

The  formation  of  a  new  ministry  was  not  an 
unusual  occurrence  in  the  early  years  of  King 
George  the  Third.    No  one  supposed  that  Lord 
Rockingham  could  hold  on  many  months;  and  as 
early  as  July,  1766,  all  Ix)ndon  knew  that  Mr. 
Pitt  had  been  sent  for.    The  coming  and  going  of 
great  men  in  times  of  ministerial  crisis  was  always 
a  matter  of  interest;  but  the  formation  of  that 
ministry  of  all  the  factions  which  the  Patriot  King 
had  long  desired  was  something  out  of  the  ordinary, 
the  point  of  greatest  speculation  being  how  many 
irreconcilables  Mr.  Pitt  (the  Earl  of  Chatham  he 
was  now)  could  manage  to  get  seated  about  a  single 
table.    From  the  point  of  view  of  irreconcilability, 
no  one  was  more  eligible  than  Mr.  Charles  Town- 
shend,  at  that  moment  Paymaster  of  the  Forces,  a 
kind  of  enfant  terrible  of  English  politics,  of  whom 
Horace  Walpole  could  say,  with  every  likelihood 
of  being  believed,  that  "his  speech  of  last  Friday, 
made  while  half  drunk,  was  all  wit  and  indis- 
cretion; nobody  but  he  ^ould  have  made  it,  no- 
body but  he  would  have  n.ade  it  if  he  could.    He 
beat  Lord  Chatham  in  language,  Burke  in  meta- 


I 


!'l. 


1 


116       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 


phors,  Grenville  in  presumption,  Rigby  in  im- 
pudence, himself  in  folly,  and  everybody  in  good 
humour." 

This  gentleman,  much  to  his  astonishment, 
one  day  received  the  following  note  from  Lord 
Chatham:  "Sir:  You  are  too  great  a  magnitude 
not  to  be  in  a  responsible  place;  I  intend  to  pro- 
pose you  for  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
must  desire  to  have  your  answer  by  nine  o'clock 
tonight. "  Mr.  Townshend  was  dismayed  as  well 
as  astonished,  his  dismay  arising  from  the  fact 
that  the  office  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  was 
worth  but  £2700,  which  was  precisely  £4300  less 
than  he  was  then  receiving  as  Paymaster  of  the 
Forces.  To  be  a  great  magnitude  on  small  pay 
ha«l  its  disadvantages,  and  Mr.  Townshend,  after 
remaining  home  all  day  in  great  distress  of  mind, 
begged  Mr.  Pitt  to  be  allowed  to  retain  the  office 
of  Paymaster;  which  was  no  sooner  granted  than 
he  changed  his  mind  and  begged  Mr.  Pitt  to  be 
allowed  to  accept  the  Exchequer  place,  which  Mr. 
Pitt  at  first  refused  and  was  only  persuaded  to 
grant  finally  upon  the  intercession  of  the  Duke 
of  Grafton.  The  day  following,  Mr.  Townshend 
accordingly  informed  the  King  that  he  had  decided, 
in  view  of  the  urgent  representations  of  the  Earl 


f    t 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  in 

of  Chatham,  to  accept  the  office  of  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  in  his  Majesty's  new  ministry. 

No  one  supposed,  least  of  all  himself,  that  this 
delightful  man  would  have  any  influence  in  for- 
mulating the  policies  of  the  Chatham  ministry. 
Lord  Chatham's  policies  were  likely  to  be  his  own; 
and  in  the  present  case,  so  far  as  America  was 
concerned,  they  were  not  such  as  could  be  readily 
associated  with  Mr.  Townshend's  views,  so  far  as 
those  views  were  known  or  were  not  inconsistent. 
For  dealing  with  America,  the  Earl  of  Shelbume, 
because  of  his  sympathetic  understanding  of  co- 
lonial matters,  had  been  brought  into  the  minis- 
try to  formulate  a  comprehensive  and  concilia- 
tory plan;  as  for  the  revenue,  always  the  least 
part  of  Lord  Chatham's  difficulties  as  it  was  the 
chief  of  Mr.  Grenville's,  it  was  thought  that  the 
possessions  of  the  East  India  Company,  if  taken 
over  by  the  Government,  would  bring  into  the 
Treasury  sums  quite  sufficient  to  pay  the  debt 
as  well  as  to  relieve  the  people,  m  England  and 
America  at  least,  of  those  heavy  taxes  which  Mr. 
Grenville  and  his  party  had  thought  necessarily 
involved  in  the  extension  of  empire.    It  was  a 
curious   chapter   of    accidents   that   brought   all 
these  well-laid  plans  to  nought.    Scarcely  was  the 


I 


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'  I 


118       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLl'TIOX 

ministry  formed  when  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  inca- 
pacitated by  the  gout,  retired  into  a  seclusion  that 
soon  became  impenetrable;  and  "even  befoie  this 
resplendent  orb  was  entirely  set,  and  while  the 
western  horizon  was  in  a  blaze  with  his  descend- 
ing glory,  on  the  opposite  quarter  of  the  heavens 
arose  another  Inminury,  and,  for  his  hour,  became 
lord  of  the  ascendant. "  This  luminary  was  Mr. 
Charles  Townshend. 

Mr.  Townshend  was  the  "delight  and  ornament" 
of  the  House,  as  Edmund  Burke  said.  Never  was 
a  man  in  any  country  of  "more  pointed  and 
finished  wit,  or  (where  his  passions  were  not  con- 
cerned) of  a  more  refined,  exquisite,  and  pene- 
trating judgment";  never  a  man  to  excel  him 
in  "luminous  explanation  and  display  of  his  sub- 
ject," nor  ever  one  less  tedious  or  better  able  to 
conform  himself  exactly  to  the  temper  of  the  House 
which  he  seemed  to  guide  because  he  was  always 
sure  to  follow  it.  In  1765  Mr.  "^ownshend  had 
voted  for  the  Stamp  Act,  but  i  a'*66,  when  the 
Stamp  Act  began  to  be  no  fav  Ate,  he  voted  for 
the  repeal,  and  would  have  spoken  for  it  too,  if 
an  illness  had  not  prevented  him.  And  now,  in 
1767,  Mr.  Townshend  was  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, ind  as  such  responsible  for  the  revenue;  a 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  119 

man  without  any  of  that  temperamental  obstinacy 
which  persists  in  opinions  once  formed,  and  with- 
out any  fixed  opinions  to  persist  in;  but  quite 
disposed,  according  to  habit,  to  "hit  the  House 
just  between  wind  and  water,'*  and  to  win  its 
applause  by  speaking  for  the  majority,  or  by 
"haranguing  inimitably  on  both  sides"  when  the 
majority  was  somewhat  uncertain. 

In  January,  1767,  when  Lord  Chatham  was  ab- 
sent and  the  majority  was  very  uncertain,  Mr. 
Grenville  took  occasion,  in  the  debate  upon  the  ex- 
traordinaries  for  the  army  in  England  and  America, 
to  move  that  America,  like  Ireland,  should  sup- 
port its   own    establishment.    The  opportunity 
was  one  which  Mr.  Townshend   could  not  let 
pass.     Much  to  the  astonishment  of  every  one 
and  most  of  all  to  that  of  his  colleagues  in  the 
ministry,  he  supported  Mr.  Grenville's  resolution, 
declaring  himself  now  in  favor  of  the  Stamp  Act 
which  he  had  voted  to  repeal,   treating  "Lord 
Chatham's  distinction  between  internal  and  exter- 
nal taxation  as  contemptuously  as  Mr.  Grenville 
had  done,"  and  pledging  himself  able,  if  necessary, 
to  find  a  revenue  in  America  nearly  adequate  to 
the  proposed  project.    The  Eari  of  Shelbume, 
in  great  distress  of  mind,  at  once  wrote  to  Lord 


f 


,'   t 


180      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

Chalii;  (1,  relating  the  strungf  if  characteristic 
conduct  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and 
declai  i  If,  himgelf  entirely  ignorant  of  the  intentions 
of  his  iol1< agues.  It  was  indeed  an  anomalous 
situation.  If  Ix)rd  Chatham's  policies  were  still 
to  bt  .  nils.'' 'red  those  of  the  ministry,  Mr.  Town- 
riie  !!  iiifrl  t  be  said  to  be  in  opposition,  a  circum- 
2itaL<  I  v.Kuh  made  "many  people  think  Lord 
Cha^!  am  -i  it  St.  James's"  only. 

Lor  '  Ci,  lu!  '  ^i  lot  ill  at  St.  James's.  He 
was  i  i  ft  if  Iv  .^ry  well  at  St.  James's,  being 
unabl  to  t\>[H  r  there,  thus  leaving  the  divided 
mini.'  i-y  amoucti'ii;  to  the  King's  management  or 
helpless  before  a  factious  Opposition.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Opposition  came  when  the  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer,  in  February',  proposed  to 
continue  the  land  tax  at  four  shillings  for  one  year 
more,  after  which  time,  he  thought,  it  might  be 
reduced  to  three  shillings  in  view  of  additional 
revenues  to  be  obtained  from  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. But  Opposition  saw  no  reason  why,  in 
view  of  the  revenue  which  Mr.  Townshend  had 
pledged  himself  to  find  in  America,  a  shilling 
might  not  be  taken  from  the  land  at  once,  a  pro- 
posal which  Mr.  Dowdeswell  moved  should  be 
done,  and  which  was  accordingly  voted  through 


nEFINING  THE  ISSUE  l«i 

the  influence  of  Mr.  Grenville  und  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  who  had  formerly  carrii«d  the  Stamp 
Act,  aided  by  the  Rockingham  Whigs  who  had 
formerly  repealed  it.  If  Lord  Chatham  was  ill  at 
St.  James's,  this  was  a  proper  time  to  resign.  It 
was  doubtless  a  proper  time  to  resign  in  uiiy  case. 
But  Lord  Chatham  did  not  resign.  In  March  he 
came  to  London,  endeavored  to  noplace  Mr.  Town- 
shend  by  Lord  North,  which  he  failed  to  dc.  and 
then  retired  to  Bath  to  be  seen  no  more,  leaving 
Mr.  Townshend  more  than  ever  "rr.a.ter  of  the 
revels. " 

Mr.  Townshend  did  not  resign  eillier,  but  con- 
tinued in  office,  quite  undisturbed  by  the  fact  that 
a  cardinal  meaMire  of  the  ministry  had  been  de- 
cisively voted  down.  Mr.  Townshend  reasoned 
that  if  Opposition  would  not  support  the  ministry, 
all  difficulties  would  be  straightened  out  by  the 
ministry's  supporting  the  Opposition.  This  was 
the  more  reasonable  since  Opposition  had  jjerhaps 
been  right  after  all,  so  far  as  the  colonies  were 
concerned.  Late  reports  from  that  quarter  seemed 
to  indicate  that  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  far 
from  satisfying  the  Am«^ricans,  had  only  corifirmcfl 
that  umbrageous  people  in  a  spirit  of  licentious- 
ness, which  was  precisely  what  Oj.poMtion  had 


i 


i 


Y 


s 


122      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

predicted  as  the  sure  result  of  any  weak  conces- 
sion. The  New  York  Assembly,  it  now  appeared, 
refused  to  make  provision  for  the  troops  according 
to  the  terms  of  the  Quartering  Act;  New  York 
merchants  were  petitioning  for  a  further  modi- 
fication of  the  trade  acts;  the  precious  Bostonians, 
wrangling  refined  doctrinaire  points  with  Gover- 
nor Bernard,  were  making  interminable  diflSculties 
about  compensating  the  sufferers  from  the  Stamp 
Act  riots.  If  Lord  Chatham,  in  February,  1767, 
could  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  colonies  had 
"drunk  deep  of  the  baneful  cup  of  infatuation," 
Mr.  Townshend,  having  voted  for  the  Stamp  Act 
and  for  its  repeal,  might  well  think,  in  May,  that 
the  time  was  ripe  for  a  return  to  rigorous  measures. 
On  May  13,  in  a  speech  which  charmed  the 
House,  Mr.  Townshend  opened  his  plan  for  settling 
the  colonial  question .  The  growing  spirit  of  insub- 
ordination, which  must  be  patent  to  all,  he  thought 
could  be  most  effectively  checked  by  making  an 
example  of  New  York,  where  defiance  was  at 
present  most  open;  for  which  purpose  it  was  pro- 
posed that  the  meetings  of  the  Assembly  of  that 
province  be  totally  suspended  until  it  should  have 
complied  with  the  terms  of  the  Mutiny  Act.  As 
one  chief  source  of  power  in  colonial  assemblies 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  m 

which  contributed  greatly  to  make  them  insubordi- 
nate was  the  dependence  of  executive  officials  upon 
them  for  salaries.  Mr.  Townshend  now  renewed 
the  proposal,  which  he  had  formerly  brought  for- 
ward in  1763,  to  create  an  independent  civil  hst 
for  the  payment  cf  governors  and  judges  from 
England.     The  revenue  for  such  a  civil  list  would 
naturally  be  raised  in  America.     Mr.  Townshend 
would  not,  however,  venture  to  renew  the  Stamp 
Act,  which  had  been  so  opposed  on  the  ground 
of  its  being  an  internal  tax.     He  was  free  to  say 
that  the  distinction  between  internal  and  external 
taxes  was  perfect  nonsense;  but,  since  the  logical 
Americans  thought  otherwise,  he  would  concede 
the  point  and  would  accordingly  humor  them  by 
laying  only   external   duties,  which   he  thought 
might  well  be  on  various  kinds  of  glass  and  paper, 
on  red  and  white  lead,  and  upon  t«as,  the   luties 
to  be  collected  in  colonial  ports   upon  the  im- 
portation of  these  commodities   from  England. 
It  was  estimated  that  the  duties  might  altogether 
make  about  £40,000,  if  the  collection  were  prop- 
erly attended  to;  and  in  order  that  the  collection 
might  be  properly  attended  to,  and  for  the  more 
efficient  administration  of  the  American  customs 
in  general,  Mr.  Townshend  further  recommended 


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124       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

that  a  Board  of  Customs  Commissioners  be  cre- 
ated and  established  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  With 
slight  opposition,  all  these  recommendations  were 
enacted  into  law;  and  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Customs,  shortly  afterward  appointed  by  the 
King,  arrived  in  Boston  in  November,  1767. 

At  Boston,  the  Commissioners  found  much  to 
be  done  in  the  way  of  collecting  the  customs,  par- 
ticularly in  the  matter  of  Madeira  wines.  Madeira 
wines  were  much  drunk  in  the  old  Bay  colony, 
being  commonly  imported  directly  from  the  is- 
lands, without  too  much  attention  to  the  duty 
of  £7  per  ton  lawfully  required  in  that  case. 
Mr.  John  Hancock,  a  popular  Boston  merchant, 
did  a  thriving  business  in  this  way;  and  his  sloop 
Liberty,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  trade,  carrying 
six  pipes  of  "good  saleable  Madeira"  for  the  coffee- 
house retailers,  four  pipes  of  the  "very  best"  for 
his  own  tabic,  and  "two  pipes  more  of  the  best  .  .  . 
for  the  Treasurer  of  the  province, "  entered  the  har- 
bor on  May  9, 1768.  In  the  evening  Mr.  Thomas 
Kirk,  tide-waiter,  acting  for  the  Commissioners, 
boarded  the  sloop,  where  he  found  the  captain, 
Nat  Bernard,  and  also,  by  some  chance,  another  of 
Mr.  Hancock's  skippers,  young  James  Marshall, 
together  with  half  a  dozen  of  his  friends.    They  sat 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  125 

with  punch  served  by  the  captain  all  round  until 
nine  o'clock,  when  young  James  Marshall  casually 
asked  if  a  few  casks  might  not  as  well  be  set  on 
shore  that  evening.    Mr.  Kirk  replied  that  it  could 
not  be  done  with  his  leave;  whereupon  he  found 
himself  "hoved  down"  into  the  cabin  and  confined 
there  for  three  hours,  from  which  point  of  dis- 
advantage he  could  distinctly  hear  overhead   "a 
noise  of  many  people  at  work,  a-hoisting  out  of 
goods. "    In  due  time  Mr.  Kirk  was  released,  hav- 
ing suffered  no  injury,  except  perhaps  a  little  in 
his  official  character.     Next  day  Mr.  Hancock's 
cargo   was  duly   entered,   no  pipes  of  Madeira 
listed;  and  to  all  appearance  the  only  serious  as- 
pect of  the  affair  was  that  young  James  Marshall 
died  before  morning,  it  was  thought  from  over- 
exertion and  excitement. 

Very  likely  few  people  in  Boston  knew  anything 
;.bout  this  -nteresting  episode;  and  a  month  later 
much  excitement  was  accordingly  raised  by  the 
news  that  Mr.  Hancock's  sloop  Liberty  had  been 
ordered  seized  for  non-payment  of  customs.  A 
crowd  watched  the  ship  towed,  for  safe-keeping, 
under  the  guns  of  the  FU>mney  in  the  harbor. 
When  the  Commissioners,  who  had  come  down 
to  see  the  thing  done,  left  the  wharf  they  were 


I 


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126      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

roughly  handled  by  the  incensed  people;  and  in 
the  evening  windows  of  some  of  their  houses  were 
broken,  and  a  boat  belonging  to  a  collector  was 
hauled  on  shore  and  burnt  on  the  Common. 
Governor  Bernard  at  last  informed  the  Com- 
missioners that  he  could  not  protect  them  in 
Boston,  whereupon  they  retired  with  their  fami- 
lies to  the  Romney,  and  later  to  Castle  William. 
There  they  continued,  under  diflBculties,  the  work 
of  systematizing  the  American  customs;  and  not 
without  success,  inasmuch  as  the  income  from  the 
duties  during  the  years  from  1768  to  1774  averaged 
about  £30,000  sterling,  at  an  annual  cost  to  the 
revenue  of  not  more  than  £13,000.  This  saving 
was  nevertheless  not  effected  without  the  estab- 
lishment at  Boston,  on  the  recommendation  of 
the  Commissioners,  of  two  regiments  of  the  line 
which  arrived  September  28,  1768,  and  were 
landed  under  the  guns  of  eight  men-of-war,  with- 
out opposition.  The  cost  of  maintaining  the  two 
regiments  in  Boston  wa^,  doubtless  not  included 
in  the  £13,000  charged  to  the  revenue  as  the 
annual  expense  of  collecting  £30,000  of  customs. 
In  spite  of  the  two  regiments  of  the  line,  with 
artillery,  Boston  was  not  quiet  in  this  year  1768. 
The  soldiers  acted  decently  enough,  no  doubt;  but 


I!   i     f 


h 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  127 

their  manners  were  very  British  and  their  coats 
were  red,  and  "their  simple  presence."  conveying 
every  day  the  suggestion  of  compulsion,  was  "an 
intolerable  grievance."    Every  small  matter  was 
magnified.     The  people,  says  Hutchinson,  "had 
been  used  to  answer  to  the  call  of  the  town  watch 
m  the  night,  yet  they  did  not  like  to  answer  to 
the  frequent  calls  of  the  ceutinels  posted  at  the 
barracks;  ...  and  either  a  refusal  to  answer,  or 
an  answer  accompanied  with  irritating  language, 
endangered  the  peace  of  the  town."    On  Sundays' 
especially,  the  Boston  mind  found  something  ir- 
reverent, something  at  the  very  least  irrelevant, 
in  the  presence  of  the  bright  colored  and  highly 
secular  coats;  while  the  noise  of  fife  and  drum  so 
disturbing  to  the  sabbath  calm,  called  forth  from 
the  Selectmen  a  respectful  petition  to  the  general 
requesting  him  to  "dispense  with  the  band. " 

These  were  but  slight  matters;  but  as  time  passed 
httle  grievances  accumulated  on  both  sides  until 
the  relation  between  the  people  and  the  soldiers 
was  one  of  settled  hostility,  and  at  last,  after  two 
years,  the  tense  situation  culminated  in  the  famous 
Boston  Massacre.  On  the  evening  of  JMarch  5, 
1770.  there  was  an  alarm  of  fire,  false  as  it  turned 
out,  which  brought  many  people  into  the  streets. 


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128       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

especially  boys,  whom  one  may  easily  imagine 
catching  up,  as  they  ran,  handfuls  of  damp  snow 
to  make  snowballs.  For  snowballs,  there  could  be 
no  better  target  than  red-coated  sentinels  stand- 
ing erect  and  motionless  at  the  post  of  duty;  and 
it  chanced  that  one  of  these  individuals,  sta- 
tioned before  the  Customs  House  door,  was  pelted 
with  the  close-packed  missiles.  Being  several 
times  struck,  he  called  for  aid,  the  guard  turned 
out,  and  a  crowd  gathered.  One  of  the  soldiers 
was  presently  knocked  down,  another  was  hit  by  a 
club,  and  at  last  six  or  seven  shots  were  fired,  with 
or  without  orders,  the  result  of  which  was  four 
citizens  lying  dead  on  the  snow-covered  streets  of 
Boston. 

The  Boston  Massacre  was  not  as  serious  as  the 
Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew  or  the  Sicilian 
Vespers;  but  it  served  to  raise  passion  to  a  white 
heat  in  the  little  provincial  town.  On  the  next 
day  there  was  assembled,  imder  the  skillful  leader- 
ship of  Samuel  Adams,  a  great  town  meeting  which 
demanded  in  no  uncertain  terms  the  removal  of  the 
troops  from  Boston.  Under  the  circumstances, 
six  hundred  British  soldiers  would  have  fared  badly 
in  Boston;  and  in  order  to  prevent  further  blood- 
shed, acting  Governor  Hutchinson  finally  gave  the 


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DECTNING  THE  ISSUE  ,» 

order  Within  .  hrMgU.  tho  lw„,„a|,  „gi„,„^ 
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Capt^n  Preston  an,1  otW  soldier,  implicated  in 
the  not  were  tried  before  a  Boston  jury  Ablv 
defended  by  John  Adan.s  „„.,  ,„.;„,  ^'^^  ^y 
were  .11  acquitted  on  the  evidence,  except  t.-^ 
who  were  convicted  and  lightly  punished  for  man- 
slaughter. 

on  he  5th  o  March.  1770.  which  was  the  verv  day 
that  Lord  North  ro.e  in  the  House  of  Commons 
to  propose  the  partial  repeal  of  the  Townshen.I 
duties.     This  outcome  was  not  unconnected  with 
events  that  had  occurred  in  America  during  the 
eighteen  months  since  the  landing  of  the  troops  in 
Boston  m  September.  1708.     In  1708.  John  Adams 
could  not  have  foretold  the  Boston  Massacre,  or 
have  foreseen  that  he  would  himself  incur  popular 
displeasure  for  having  defended  the  soldiers      But 
he  could,  even  at  that  early  date,  divine  the 
motives  of  the  British  government  in  sending  the 
troops  to  Boston.     To  his  mind,  "the  very  ap 
pearance  of  the  troops  in  Boston  was  a  strong  proof 
••    .   that  the  determination  of  Great  Britain  to 
subjugate  us  was  too  deep  and  inveterate  to  be 
altered."    All  the  measures  of  ministry  seemed 


It. 

f 


I? 


h 

i    li 
>  i! 


I1 


ISO      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOUTION 

indeed  to  confirm  that  view.  Mr.  Townshend's 
condescension  in  accepting  the  colonial  distinction 
between  internal  and  external  taxes  was  clearly 
only  a  subtle  moncuver  designetl  to  conceal  an 
attack  upon  liberty  fur  more  dangerous  than  the 
former  attempts  of  Mr.  Grenville.  After  all,  Mr. 
Townshend  was  probably  right  in  thinking  the  dis- 
tinction of  no  importance,  the  main  point  being 
whether,  as  Lord  Chatham  had  said,  the  Parlia- 
ment could  by  any  kind  of  taxes  "take  money  out 
of  their  iK)ckets  without  their  consent.'* 

Duties  on  glass  and  tea  certainly  would  tuKe 
money  out  of  their  pockets  without  their  consent, 
and  therefore  it  must  be  true  that  taxes  could  be 
rightly  laid  only  by  colonial  assemblies,  in  which 
alone  Americans  could  be  represented.   But  of  what 
value  was  it  to  preserve  the  abstract  right  of  taxa- 
tion by  colonial  assemblies  if  meanwhile  the  assem- 
blies themselves  might,  by  act  of  Parliament,  be 
abolished?    And  had  not  the  New  York  Assembly 
been  suspended  by  act  of  Parliament?    And  were 
not  the  new  duties  to  be  used  to  pay  governors  and 
judges,  thus  by  subtle  indirection  undermining  the 
very  basis  of  legislative  independence?    And  now, 
in  the  year  1768,  the  Massachusetts  Assembly, 
having  sent  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  colonies 


% 

i 

r 


DKFrXING  THE  ISSUE  isi 

rcqucHting  concvrtod  action  in  defense  of  their  lib- 
erties.  wu..  (Iire(  te<l  by  Uml  Hillsborough,. spt^aking 
in  hi^  xMuje^ty's  name,  "to  rescind  the  it-solution 
whirh  gave  birth  to  thr  circular  letter  from  the 
Speukrr,  and  to  declare  their  disapprobation  of. 
and  di.Hsent  to,  that  rash  and  hasty  proceeding."' 
Clearly,  it  was  no  mere  question  of  taxation  but 
the  larger  (piestion   of   legislative   independence 
that  now  confronted  Americans. 

A  more  .skillful  diu!(vtic  was  requirwl  to  defend 
American    rights  again.st   the  'J'ownshend  duties 
than  against  the  Stamp  Act.     It  was  a  .somewhat 
stubborn  fact  that  FVrliam,,,*  had  for  more  than 
a  hundred  years  passe<l  U\^,.   .-tfeclively  Wfrula- 
ting  colonial  trade,  and  for  rcuul..iing  t'rmie  had 
imposed  duties,  some  of  whici.  had  brought  in- 
to the  Exchequer  a  certain  revenue.     Americans, 
wishing  to  be  thought  logical  as  well  as  loyal,' 
could  not  well  say  at  this  late  date  that  Parlia- 
ment had  no  right  to  lay  duties   in   regulation 
of  trade.     Must  they  then  submit  to  the  Town- 
shend  duties.'    Or  was  it  possible  to  draw  a  line, 
making  a  distinction,  rather  more  subtle  than  the 
old  one  between  internal  and  external  taxes,  be- 
tween duties  for  regulation  and  duties  for  revenue? 
This  latter  feat   was  undertaken  by  Mr.  John 


h^ 


} 


182  THE  FAX  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
Dickinson  of  Pennsylvania,  anonymously,  under 
the  guise  of  a  simple  but  intelligent  and  virtuous 
farmer  whose  arcadian  existence  had  confirmed 
in  him  an  instinctive  love  of  liberty  and  had 
supplied  him  with  the  leisure  to  meditate  at  large 
upon  human  welfare  and  the  excellent  British 
Constitution. 

Mr.  Dickinson  readily  granted  America  to  be 
dependent  upon  Great  Britain,  "as  much  depend- 
ent I  ,)on  Great  Britain  as  one  perfectly  free  people 
can  be  on  another. "  But  it  appeared  axiomatic 
to  the  unsophisticated  mind  of  a  simple  farmer 
that  no  people  could  be  free  if  taxed  without  its 
consent,  and  that  Parliament  had  accordingly  no 
right  to  lay  any  taxes  upon  the  colonies;  from 
which  it  followed  that  the  sole  question  in  respect 
to  duties  laid  on  trade  was  whether  they  were  in- 
tended for  revenue  or  for  regulation.  Intention  in 
such  matters  was  of  primary  importance,  since  all 
duties  were  likely  to  be  regulative  to  some  extent. 
It  might  be  objected  that  "it  will  be  difficult  for 
any  persons  but  the  makers  of  the  laws  to  deter- 
mine which  of  them  are  made  for  regulation  of 
trade,  and  which  for  raising  a  revenue."  This 
was  true  enough  but  at  present  of  academic  impor- 
tance only,  inasmuch  as  the  makers  of  the  Sugar 


in 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  133 

Act,  the  Stamp  Act.  and  the  Townshend  duties 
had    conveniently   and    very   clearly   proclaimed 
their  intention  to  be  the  raising  of  a  revenue.    Yet 
this  question,  academic  now,  might  soon  become 
extremely  practical.    The  makers  of  laws  might  not 
always  express  their  intention  so  explicitly;  they 
might,  with  intention  to  raise  a  revenue,  pass  acts 
professing  to  be  for  regulation  only;  and  there- 
fore, since  "names  will  not  change  the  nature  of 
things,"  Americans  ought  "firmly  to  believe 
that  unless  the  most  watchful  attention  be  exerted, 
a  new  servitude  may  be  slipped  upon  us  under  the 
sanction   of   usual   and   respectable  terms."     In 
such  case  the  intention  should  be  inferred  from 
the  nature  of  the  act;  and  the  Farmer,  for  his 
part,  sincerely  hoped  that  his  countrymen  "would 
never,  to  their  latest  existence,  want  understand- 
ing sufficient  to  discover  the  intentions  of  those 
who  rule  over  them." 

Mr.  Dickinson's  Farmer's  Letters  were  widely  read 
and  highly  commended.  The  argument,  subtle 
but  clear,  deriving  the  nature  of  an  act  from  the 
intention  of  its  makers,  and  the  intention  of  its 
makers  from  the  nature  of  the  act,  contributed 
more  than  any  other  exposition  to  convince  Ameri- 
cans that  they  "have  the   same    right   that  all 


ii 


f 


\  \ 


♦  1. 


H 


f. 


1S4      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

states  have,  of  judging  when  their  privileges  are 
invaded." 

"As  much  dependent  on  Great  Britain  as  one 
perfectly  free  people  can  be  on   another,"  the 
Farmer  said.     Englishnnen  might  be  excused  for 
desiring  a   more  precise  delimitation   of  parlia- 
mentary jurisdiction  than  could  be  found  in  this 
phrase,   as   weH   as  for  asking   what   clear  legal 
ground  there  was  for  making  any  delimitation 
at  all.     To  the  first  point,  Mr.  Dickinson  said 
in  effect  that  Parliament  had  not  the  right  to  tax 
the  colonies  and   that   it   had  not  the  right  to 
abolish  their  assemblies  through  which  they  alone 
could    tax    themselves.     The   second    point   Mr. 
Dickinson  did  not  clearly  answer,  although  it  was 
undoubtedly  most  fundamental      To  this  point 
Mr.  Samuel  Adams  had  given  much  thought;  and 
in  letters  which  he  drafted  for  the  Massachusetts 
Assembly,  in  the  famous  circular  letter  particu- 
larly, and  in  the  letter  of  January  12, 1769,  sent  to 
the  Assembly's  agent  in  England,  Mr.  Dennys  De 
Berdt,  Mr.  Adams  formulated  a  theory  designed 
to  show  that  the  colonies  were  "subordinate"  but 
not  subject  to  the  British  Parliament.    The  delimi- 
tation  of  colonial  and  parliamentary  jurisdictions 
Mr.  Adams  achieved  by  subordinating  all  legis- 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  135 

lative  authority  to  an  authority  higher  than  any 
positive  law,  an  authority  deriving  its  sanction 
from  the  fixed  and  universal  law  of  nature.  This 
higher  authority,  which  no  legislature  could  "over- 
leap without  destroying  its  own  foundation,"  was 
the  British  Constitution. 

Mr.  Adams  spoke  of  the  British  Constitution 
with  immense  confidence,  as  something  singularly 
definite  and  well  known,  the  provisions  of  which 
were  clearly  ascertainable;  which  singular  effect 
doubtless  came  from  the  fact  that   he  thought 
of  it,  not  indeed  as  something  written  down  on 
paper  and  deposited  in  archives  of  state,  but  as  a 
series  of  propositions  which,  as  the-y  were  saying 
in  France,  were  indelibly  "  written  in  the  hearts  of 
all  men. "     The  British  Constitution,  he  said,  like 
the  constitution  of  every  free  state,  "is  fixed," 
having  its  foundation  not  in  positive  law,  which 
would  indeed  give  Parliament  an  ultimate  and 
therefore  a  despotic  authority,  but  in  "the  law  of 
God   and  nature."     There   were   in   the   British 
Empire    many    legislatures,    all    deriving    their 
authority  from,  and  all  finding  their  limitations 
in,  the   Constitution.     Parliament   had  certainly 
a  supreme  or  superintending  legislative  authority 
in  the  Empire,  as  the  colonial  assemblies  had  a 


I 


I 


5S^:^?t- 


i 


186       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

"subordinate,"  in  the  sense  of  a  local,  legislative 
authority;  but  neither  the  Parliament  nor  any 
colonial  assembly  could  "overleap  the  Constitu- 
tion   without    destroying    its    own    foundation." 
And  therefore,  since  the  Constitution  is  founded 
"in  the  law  of  God  and  nature, "  and  since  " it  is  an 
essential  natural  right  that  a  man  shall  quietly 
enjoy  and  have  the  sole  disposal  of  his  property," 
the  Americans  must  enjoy  this  right  equally  with 
Englishmen,  and  Parliament  must  be  bound  to  re- 
spect this  right  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  in  Eng- 
land; from  which  it  followed  irresistibly  that  the 
consent  of  the  colonies  to  any  taxation  must  be 
sought   exclusively    in    their   own   assemblies,   it 
being  manifestly  impossible  for  that  consent  to  be 
"constitutionally  had  in  Parliament." 

It  was  commonly  thought  in  America  that  Mr. 
Adams,  although  not  a  judge,  had  a  singular  gift 
for  constitutional  interpretation.  Far-sighted  men 
could  nevertheless  believe  that  a  powerful  party 
in  England,  inspired  by  inveterate  hatred  of 
America  and  irretrievably  bent  upon  her  ruin, 
would  pronounce  all  his  careful  distinctions  ridicu- 
lous and  would  still  reply  to  every  argument  by 
the  mere  assertion,  as  a  fact  behind  which  one 
could  not  go,  that  Parliament  had  always  had  and 


^V!^Bl£3&g^J^^g^S^^^ 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  137 

must  therefore  still  have  full  power  to  bind  the 
colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever.  If  Britain  would 
not  budge  from  this  position,  Americans  would 
soon  be  confronted  with  the  alternative  of  admit- 
ting  Parliament  to  have  full  power  or  denying  it 
to  have  any. 

With  that  sharp-set  alternative  in  prospect,  it 
would  be  well  to  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  argu- 
ments lost  carrying  power  in  proportion  to  their 
subtlety;  and  in  the  opinion  of  so  good  a  judge  as 
Benjamin  Franklin  the  reasoning  of  Mr.  Adams 
and  Mr.  Dickinson  was  perhaps  not  free  from  this 
grave  disadvantage. 


U' 


I  am  not  yet  master  [he  was  free  to  confessl  of  the 
Idea  these         .  writers  have  of  the  relation  between 
Bntam  and  her  colonies.     I  know  not  what  the  Boston 
people  mean  by  the  "subordination"  they  acknowledge 
m  their  Assembly  to  Parliament,  while  they  deny  its 
power  to  make  laws  for  them,  nor  what  bounds  the 
Farmer  sets  to  the  power  he  acknowledges  in  Parlia- 
ment to  -regulate  the  trade  of  the  colonies,"  it  being 
difficult  to  draw  lines  between  duties  for  regulation 
and  those  for  revenue;  nnd.  if  the  Parliament  is  to  be 
the  judge.  It  seems  to  me   that   establishing  such  a 
principle  of  distinction  will   amount   to  little      The 
more  I  have  thought  and  read  on  the  subject,  the  more 
I    fand  mys»-lf  cnfinned  in  opinion,  that  no  middle 
grouiKi  can  be  well  maintaintd,  I  mean  not  clearly  with 


i'H 


M*^^^3^S!»: 


*'l 


\ 


I 


■}t 


1S8       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

intelligible  arguments.  Something  might  be  made  of 
either  of  the  extremes:  that  Parliament  has  a  power 
to  make  all  laws  for  us,  or  that  it  has  a  power  to  make 
no  laws  for  us;  and  I  think  the  arguments  for  the 
latter  more  numerous  and  weighty,  than  those  for  the 
former. 


The  good  Doctor  had  apparently  read  and  thought 
a  great  deal  about  the  matter  since  the  day  when 
Mr.  Grenville  had  called  him  in  to  learn  if  there 
were  good  objections  to  be  urged  against  the 
Stamp  Act. 

Practical  men  were  meanwhile  willing  to  allow 
the  argument  to  take  whatever  direction  the 
exigencies  of  the  situation  might  require,  being 
ready  to  believe  that  Mr.  Dickinson  counseled 
well  and  that  Mr.  Franklin  counseled  well;  being 
nevertheless  firmly  convinced  from  pas!  experi- 
ence that  an  Englishman's  ability  to  see  reason 
was  never  great  except  when  his  pocket  was 
touched.  Practical  men  were  therefore  generally 
of  the  opinion  that  they  could  best  demonstrate 
their  rights  by  exhibiting  their  power.  This 
happily,  they  could  do  by  bringing  pressure  to 
bear  upon  English  merchants  by  taking  money  out 
of  their  pockets  —  without  their  consent  to  be  sure 
but  in  a  manner  strictly  legal   -  by  means  of  non- 


!f 


•1 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  1S9 

importation  aj?reements  voluntarily  entered  into. 
As  early  as  October.  1707,  the  Boston  merchants 
entered  into  such  an  agreement,  which  was  how- 
ever  not  very  drastic  and  proved  to  be  of  no  effect, 
as  it  was  at  first  unsupported  by  the  merchants  in 
any  other  colony.     In  April.  1768,  the  merchants 
of  New  York,  seeing  the  necessity  of  concerted 
action,  agreed  not  to  import    "any  goods  [save 
a  very  few  enumerated   articles)  which  shall  be 
shipped  from  Great  Britain  after  the  first  of  Octo- 
ber next:  provided  Boston  and  Philadelphia  adopt 
similar  measures  l)y  the  first  of  June."     Phila- 
delphia merchants  said  they  were  not   opposed 
to  the  principle  of  non-importation,  but  greatly 
feared  the  New  York  plan  would  serve  to  create 
a  monopoly  by  enabling  men  of  means  to  lay  in  a 
large  stock  of  gtMnls  before  the  agreement  went 
into  effect.     This  was  very  true;  but  the  objection, 
if  it  was  an  objection,  prove<l  not  to  be  an  insur- 
mountable one.     Before  the  year  was  out,  in  the 
late  summer  for  the  most  part,  the  merchants  in  all 
the  commercial  towns  had  subscribed  to  agree- 
ments, differing  somewhat  in  detail,  of  which  the 
substance  was  that  they   would   neither  import 
from  Great  Britain  any  commodities,  nor  buy  or 
sell  any  which  might  inadvertently  find  their  way 


i 


r 


I' 


: 


140      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

in.  until  the  duties  imposed  by  the  Townshend 
act  should  have  been  repealed. 

The  merchants'  agreements  were,  for  whatever 
reason,  much  better  observed  in  some  places  than  in 
others.     Imports  from  Great  Britain  to  New  York 
fell  during  the  year  1769  from  about  £482,000  to 
about  £74,000.    Imports  into  New  England  and  in- 
to  Pennsylvania  declined  a  little  more  than  one 
half;  whereas  in  the  southern  colonies  there  was  no 
decline  at  all,  but  on  the  contrary  an  increase,  slight 
in  tht'  case  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  and  rather 
marked  in  the  Carolines.    In  spite  of  these  defec- 
tions, the  experiment  was  not  without  effect  upon 
English  merchants.    English  merchants,  but  little 
interested  in  the  decline  or  increase  of  trade  to  par- 
ticular colonies,  were  chiefly  aware  that  the  total 
exportation  to  America  was  nearly  a  million  pounds 
less  in  1769  than  in  1768.     Understanding  little 
about  colonial  rights,  but  knowing  only,  as  in  1766, 
that  their  "trade  was  hurt,"  they  accordingly  ap- 
plied once  more  to  Parliament  for  relief.    The 
commerce  with  America  which  was  "so  essential  to 
afford  employment  and  subsistence  to  the  manu- 
factures of  these  kingdoms,  to  augment  tbr  public 
revenue,  to  serve  as  a  nursery  for  seamen,  and  to 
increase  our  navigation  and  maritime  strength"  — 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  m 

this  commerce,  said  the  Merchants  and  Traders  of 
the  City  of  London  Trmhng  to  America, "  is  at  pres- 
onl  in  an  alarming  state  of  suspension";  and  the 
Merchants  and  Traders  of  the  City  of  London 
therefore  humbly  prayed  Parh'ament  to  repeal  the 
duties  which  were  the  occasion  of  their  incon- 
veniences. 

The  petition  of  the  London  merchants  came 
before  the  House  on  March  5,  1770,  that  being 
the  day  fixed  l)y  Lord  North  for  proposing,  on 
behalf    of    the    ministry,    certain    measures    for 
America.     No  one,  said  the  first  minister,  could 
be  more  free  than  himself  to  recognize  the  impor- 
tance of  American  trade  or  more  disposed  to  meet 
the  wishes   of   the  London  merchants  as  far  as 
possible.     The  inconveniences  under  which  that 
trade  now  labored  were  manifest,  but  he  could  not 
think,  with  the  petitioners,  that  these  inconven- 
iences arose  from  "the  nature  of  the  duties"  so 
much  as  "through  the  medium  of  the  dissatis- 
faction of  the  Americans,  and  those  combinations 
and  associations  of  which  we  have  heard  "  —  associ- 
ations and  combinations  which  had  been  called, 
in  an  address  to  the  House,  "unwarrantable,"  but 
which  he  for  his  part  would  go  so  far  as  to  call 
illegal.     These   illegal   combinations   in   America 


> 


h: 


M 


f 
r 


*1 


'' 


'l! 


I 


144       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

wen'  obviously  whit  causetj  the  inconveniences  of 
which  the  nurchunts  coiiM>lain»(l.  To  the  pres- 
sure of  illeffal  combination.H  alone  ParUament  ought 
nev«r  to  yifliJ;  and  niinistirs  wished  it  clearly  un- 
derstcKKl  that,  if  they  were  about  to  propose  a 
repeal  of  some  of  the  dutie.x.  they  were  not  led  to 
take  this  step  fn>nj  any  consideration  of  the  di' 
turbauct'3  in  the  colonies. 

On  the  contrary,  Uu  duties  which  it  wu.s  now 
proiMJsed  to  rt  |M  .1  -  th.  'uties  on  lead,  glass,  and 
paper  —  were  to  be  repeai  •!  strictly  on  the  ground 
that  they  ought  never  to  have  been  laid,  because 
duties  on  British  manufactures  were  contrary  to 
true  coninj.  rcial  principles.  Last  year,  when  min- 
isters had  cxprrvsed,  in  a  letter  of  Lord  Hillsborough 
to  the  governors,  their  intention  to  repeal  thev  du- 
ties, some  members  had  been  in  favor  of  repealing 
all  the  duties  and  some  were  still  in  favor  of  doing 
so.  As  to  that,  the  first  minister  could  only  say 
that  he  had  not  formerly  been  opposed  to  it  and 
wouhl  not  now  be  opposed  to  il,  had  the  Americans, 
in  response  to  tht  Furl  of  Hillsborough's  letter,  ex- 
hibited any  disposition  to  cease  tju-ir  illegal  di.sturb- 
ances  or  renounce  their  combinations.  But  the  fact 
was  that  conditions  in  Amt  rica  had  grown  steadily 
worse  since  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough's  letter,  and 


s%  » 


DEFINING  TIIE  ISSUE  148 

never  ha  I  been  so  bod  as  now;  in  view  of  which  fact 
ministers  couhl  not  but  think  it  wise  to  niiiintuin 
jjouie  tax  us  a  matter  of  principK>  purely.  They 
would  therefore  r(>comniend  that  the  tax  on  tea, 
no  burden  certainly  on  anyone,  be  continued  as  a 
concrete  application  «  f  the  right  of  Parliament  to 
tax  the  colonies. 

In  so  far  as  they  were  designed  to  !)ring  pressure 
to  bear  upon  the  mother  country,  the  merchants' 
agreements  were  clearly  not  without  a  measure 
of  success,  having  helpe<I  perhaps  to  bring  Parlia- 
ment to  the  point  of  repealing  the  duties  on  lead, 
glass,  and  paper,  as  well  as  to  bring  ministers  to 
the  point  of  keeping  the  duty  on  tea.  Americans 
generally  were  doubtless  well  pleased  with  this 
effect;  but  not  all  Americans  were  able  to  regard 
the  experiment  in  non-importation  with  unquali- 
fied approval  in  other  respects.  Non-importation, 
by  diminishing  the  quantity  and  increasing  the 
price  of  commodities,  involved  a  certain  amount 
of  personal  sacrifice.  This  sacrifice,  however,  fell 
chiefly  on  the  consumers,  the  non-importation 
not  being  under  certain  circumstances  altogether 
without  a<lvantage  to  merchants  who  faithfully 
observed  their  pledges  as  well  as  to  those  who  ob- 
served them  only  occasionally.     So  long  as  their 


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MICROCOPY   RESOIUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


1.1 


1^  12.8 


1^ 

■  3.6 


2^ 
2.2 


1.8 


^  /APPLIED  IN/MGE     Ir 

^Ti  '653   Cost   Mam   Street 

S^S  Rochester.   New   York        U609       USA 

^S  (716)   482  -  0300  -  Phone 

^S  (716)   288  -  5989  -  fat 


\    , 


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144       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

warehouses,  well  stocked  in  advance,  contained 
anything  that  could  be  sold  at  a  higher  price  than 
formerly,  non-importation  was  no  bad  thing  even 
for  those  merchants  who  observed  the  agreement. 
For  those  who  did  not   observe   the  agreement, 
as   well  as  for  those  who  engaged  in  the  smug- 
gling trade  from  Holland,  it  was  no  bad  thing  at 
any  time,  and  it  promised  to  become  an  increas- 
ingly excellent  thing  in  exact  proportion  to  the 
exhaustion   of   the  fair    trader's    stock   and  the 
consequent  advance  in  prices.    As  line  passed, 
therefore,  the  fair  trader  became  aware  Ihat  the 
non-importation   experiment,   practically   consid- 
ered, was  open  to  certain  objections;  whereas  the 
unfair  trader  was  more  in  favor  of  the  experiment 
the  longer  it  endured,  being  every  day  more  con- 
vinced that  the  non-importation  agreement  ought 
to  be  continued  and  strictly  adhered  to  as  essen- 
tial to  the  maintenance  of  American  liberties. 

The  practical  defects  of  non-importation  were 
likely  to  be  understood,  by  those  who  could  ever 
understand  them,  in  proportion  to  the  decay  of 
business;  and  in  the  spring  of  1770  they  were  no- 
where better  understood  than  in  New  York,  where 
the  decay  of  business  was  most  marked.  This 
decrease  was  greatest  in  New  York,  so  the  mer- 


> 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  145 

chants  maintaineu,  because  that  city  had  been 
most   faithful   in    observing  the  agreement,   im- 
portation   having  there  fallen  from  £482,000  to 
£74,000  during  the  year.     It  is  possible,  however, 
that  the  decay  of  business  in  New  York  was  due 
in  part  and  perhaps  primarily  to  the  retirement, 
in  November,  1768,  of  the  las'  issues  of  the  old 
Bills  of  Credit,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Paper 
Currency  Act  passed  by  Parliament  during  Mr. 
Grenville's  administration.     As  a  result  of  this 
retirement  of  all  the  paper  money  in  the  province, 
money  of  any  sort  was  exceedingly  scarce  during 
the  years  1769  and  1770.     Lyon  dollars  were  rarely 
seen;  and  the  quantity  of  Spanish  silver  brought 
into  the  colony  through  the  trade  with  the  foreign 
islands,  formerly  considerable   but   now  greatly 
diminished   by   the  stricter  enforcement   of   the 
Townshend  Trade  Acts,  was  hardly  sufficient  for 
local  exchange  alone,  to  say  nothing  of  settling 
heavy  balances  in  London,  although,  fortunately 
perhaps,  there  were  in  the  year  1769  no  heavy 
London  balances  to  be  settled  on  account  of  the 
faithful  observance  of  the  non-importation  agree- 
ment by  the  merchants.     The  lack  of  money  was 
therefore  doubtless  a  chief  cause  of  the  great 
decay  of  business  in  New  York;  and  some  there 


i 


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)'( 


'     '  '     I 

'•    '11 


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t 


146       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

were  who  maintained  that  the  faithful  observance 
of  the  non-importation  agreement  by  the  mer- 
chants was  due  to  the  decay  of  trade  rather  than 
the  decay  of  trade  being  due  to  the  faithful  observ- 
ance of  the  non-importation  agreement. 

Whatever  the  true  explanation  of  this  academic 
point  might  be,  it  was  an  undoubted  fact  that 
business  was  more  nearly  ai  a  standstill  in  New 
York  than  elsewhere.    Accordirgly,  in  the  spring 
of  1770,  when  money  was  rarely  to  be  seen  and 
debtors  were  selling  their  property  at  one-half  or 
one-third  of  its  former  value  in  order  to  discharge 
obligations  long  overdue,  the  tair  trading  mer- 
chants of  New  York  were  not  disposed  to  continue 
an  experiment  of  which,  as  they  said,  they  had 
borne  the  chief  burden  to  the  advantage  of  others 
and  to  their  own  impending  ruin.     Zealous  Sons  of 
Liberty,  such  as  Alexander  M^.xJougall  and  John 
Lamb,  popular  leaders  of  the  "Inhabitants"  of  the 
city,  were  on  the  other  hand  determined  that  the 
non-importation  agreement  should  bo  maintained 
unimpaired.     The  hard  times,  they  said,  were  due 
chiefly  to  the  monopoly  prices  exacted  by  the 
wealthy  merchants,  who  were  not  ruined  at  all, 
who  had  on  the  contrary  made  a  good  thing  out  of 
the  non-importation  as  long  as  they  had  anything 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  147 

to  sell,  and  whose  patr.jtism  (Go<l  save  the  mark!) 
had  now  suddenly  grown  lukewarm  only  because 
they  had  dispoj^d  of  all  their  goods,  including  "old 
moth-eaten  clothes  that  had  been  rotting  in  the 
shops  for  years. " 

These  aspersions  the  merchants  ktiew  ho  v  to 
ignore.  Their  determination  not  to  continue  the 
non-importation  was  nevertheless  sufficiently  in- 
dicated in  connection  with  the  annual  celebration, 
in  March,  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  On  this 
occasion  the  merchants  refused  to  meet  as  formerly 
with  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  but  made  provision  for  a 
dinner  of  their  own  at  another  place,  where  all  the 
Friends  of  Liberty  and  Trade  were  invited  to  be 
present.  Both  dinners  were  well  attended,  and  at 
both  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  was  celebrated 
with  patriotic  enthusiasm,  the  main  difference  be- 
ing that  whereas  the  Sons  of  Liberty  drank  a  toast 
to  Mr.  MacDougall  and  to  "a  continuance  of  the 
non-importation  agreement  until  the  revenue  acts 
are  repealed,"  the  Friends  of  Liberty  and  Trade 
ignored  Mr.  MacDougall  and  drank  to  "trade 
and  navigation  and  a  speedy  removal  of  their  em- 
barrassments." 

In  the  determination  not  to  continue  the  old 
agreement,  the  Friends  of  Liberty   and   Trade 


.  I 


1. 


'^ 


«    !' 


*  :\ 


4 


*^  i 


f 


i48      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
were  meanwhile  strongly  confirmed  when  it  was 
learned  that  Britain  was  wiUing  on  her  part  to 
make  concessions.    By  the  middle  of  May  it  was 
known  that  the  Townshend  duties  (except  the 
duty  on  tea)  had  been  repealed;  and  in  June  it 
was  learned  that  Parliament  had  at  last,  after 
many  representations  from  the  Assembly,  passed 
a  special  act  permitting  New  York  to  issue  £l20.- 
000  in  Bills  of  Credit  receivable  at  the  Treasury. 
It  was  thought  that  concession  on  the  part  of 
Great  Britain  ought  in  justice  to  meet  with  con- 
cession on  the  part  of  America.    Accordingly,  on 
the  ground  that  other  towns,  and  Boston  in  par- 
ticular, were  more  active  "in  resolving  what  they 
ought  to  do  than  in  doing  what  they  had  re- 
solved." and  on  the  ground  that  the  present  non- 
importation  agreement  no   longer  served  "any 
other  purpose  than  tying  the  hands  of  honest  men, 
to  let  rogues,  smugglers,  and  men  of  no  character 
plunder  their  couatry."  the  New  York  merchants, 
on  July  9,  1770,  resolved  that  for  the  future  they 
would  import  from  Great  Britain  all  kinds  of  com- 
modities except  such  as  might  be  subject  to  duties 
imposed  by  Parliament. 

The  New  York  merchants  were  on  every  hand 
loudly  denounced  for  having  betrayed  the  cause 


DEFINING  THE  ISSUE  149 

of  liberty;  but  before  the  year  was  out  the  old 
agreement  was  everywhere  set  aside.     Yet  every - 
wliere,  as  at  New  York,  the  merchants  bound  them- 
selves  I  jt  to  import  any  British  teas.  The  duty 
on  British  teas  was  slight.     Americans  might  have 
paid  the  duty  without  increasing  the  price  of  their 
much  prized  luxury;    ministers  might  have  col- 
lected the  same  duty  in  England  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Exchequer.     That  Britain  should  have  in- 
sisted on  this  peppercorn  in  acknowledgement  of 
her  right,  that  America   should  have  refused  it 
in  vindication  of  her  liberty,  may  be  taken  as  a 
high  tribute  from  two  eminently  practical  peoples 
to  the  power  of  abstract  ideas. 


i 


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1 


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'v. 


Ti 


P 


tif  ^ 


fj    I 


CHAPTER  V 


A   LITTLE   DISCREET   CONDUCT 

It  has  been  his  [Thomas  Hutchinson's]  principle  from  a  boy  that 
mankind  are  to  be  governed  by  the  discerning  few,  and  it  has  l)een 
ever  since  his  ambition  to  be  the  hero  of  the  few.  —  Samuel  Adamt. 

We  have  not  been  so  quiet  these  Cve  years.  ...  If  it  were  not 
for  two  or  three  Adamses,  we  should  do  well  enough. —  Thoma* 
Ilukhinton. 


In  December,  1771,  Horace  Walpole,  a  persistent 
if  not  an  infallible  political  prophet,  was  of  opin- 
ion that  all  the  storms  that  for  a  decade  had 
distressed  the  Empire  were  at  last  happily  blown 
over;  among  which  storms  he  included,  as  rela- 
tively of  minor  importance,  the  disputes  with  the 
colonies.  Durir  ^  two  years  following,  this  pre- 
diction might  well  have  appeared  to  moderate 
minded  men  entirely  justified.  American  affairs 
were  barely  mentioned  in  1  arliament,  and  a  few 
paragraphs  in  the  Annual  Register  were  thought 
sufficient  to  chronicle  for  English  readers  events 


150 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  '"ONDUCT       151 

of  interest  occurring  across  the  Atlantic.  In  the 
colonies  themselves  an  unwonted  tran({uillity  pre- 
vailed. Rioting,  as  an  established  social  custom, 
disappeared  in  most  of  the  places  where  it  had 
formerly  been  so  much  practised.  The  Sons  of 
Liberty,  retaining  the  semblance  of  an  organi- 
zation, were  rarely  in  the  public  eye  save  at  the 
annual  celebrations  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stump 
Act,  quite  harmless  occasions  devoted  to  the 
expression  of  patriotic  sentiments.  Merchants 
and  landowners,  again  prosperous,  were  content 
to  fall  back  into  accustomed  habits  of  life,  con- 
scious of  duty  done  without  too  much  stress, 
readily  believing  their  liberties  finally  vindicated 
against  encroachments  from  abroad  and  their 
privileges  secure  against  unwarranted  and  danger- 
ous pretensions  at  home.  "The  people  appear  to 
be  weary  of  their  altercations  with  the  mother 
country,"  Mr.  Johnson,  the  Connecticut  agent, 
wrote  to  Wedderburn,  in  October,  1771;  "a  little 
Jiscreet  conduct  on  both  sides  would  perfectly 
reSstablish  that  warm  affection  and  respect  to- 
wards Great  Britain  for  which  this  country  was 
once  remarkable. " 

Discreet  conduct  was  nowhere  more  necessary 
than  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  people,  perhaps 


i;i 


ifl 


*i 


5|,! 


i 


11 


11  I 


4 

is 


I. 


ill 


IM      THE  E\T  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

because  they  were  much  accustomed  to  them 
grew  weary  of  altercations  less  easily  than  in  most 
colonies.     Vet  even  in  Massachusetts  there  was 
a  marked  waning  of  enthusiasm  after  the  high 
excitement  occasioned  by  the  Bost  a  Massacre 
a   certam   disintegration   of    the  patriot    party' 
James  Otis   recovered  from  a  temporary  fit   of 
msan.ty   only   to  grow    strangely    suspicious   of 
Samuel  Adams.     Mr.  Hancock,  discreetly  holding 
his  peace,  attended  to  his  many  thriving  and  very 
profitable  business  ventur.  ,.    John  Adams,  some- 
what unpopular  for  having  defended  and  pro- 
cured the  acquittal  of  the  soldiers  implicated  in 
the  Massacre,  retired  in  high  dudgeon  from  public 
affairs  to  the  practice  of  his  profession;  in  high 
dudgeon  with  everyone  conce -ned  -  with  himself 
first  of  all,  and  with  the  people  who  so  easily 
forgot  their  interests  and  those  who  had  served 
them,  and  with  the  British  Government  and  all 
fawning  tools  of  ministers,  of  whom  Mr.  Thomas 
Hutchinson  was  chief.    Meanwhile,  Mr.    'itchin- 
son.  so  roughly  handled  in  the  secret  diary  of 
the  rising  young  lawyer,  was   the  recipient  of 
nev  honors,  having  been  made  Governor  of  the 
province  to  succeed  Francis  Bernard.     For  once 
finding  himself  almost  popular,  he  thought  he 


1^ 


1 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       15S 

perceived  u  disposition  in  all  the  colonies,  and 
even  in  Massuchusetts,  to  let  the  controversy 
subside.  "Though  there  are  a  small  majority 
sour  enough,  yet  when  they  seek  matter  for  pro- 
tests, remonstrances,  they  are  puzzh-d  where  to 
charge  the  grievances  which  they  look  for."  The 
new  (Jovernoi  lo  iked  forward  to  happier  days  and 
an  easy  administration,  "Hancock  and  most  of 
the  party  are  quiet,"  he  said,  "and  all  of  them, 
except  Adams,  abate  of  their  virulence.  Adams 
would  push  the  Continent  into  a  rebellion  to- 
morrow, if  it  was  in  his  power. " 

No  one,  in  the  year  1770,  was  better  fitted  than 
Samuel  Adams,  either  by  talent  and  temperament 
or  the  circumstances  of  his  position,  to  push  the 
continent  into  a  rebellion.  Unlike  most  of  his 
patriot  friends,  he  had  neither  private  business  nor 
private  profession  to  fall  back  upon  when  public 
affairs  grew  tame,  his  only  business  being,  as  one 
might  say,  the  public  business,  his  only  profession 
the  definition  and  defense  of  popular  rights.  In 
this  profession,  by  dint  of  single-minded  devotion 
to  it  irough  a  course  of  years,  he  had  in- 
deed become  wonderfully  expert  and  had  already 
achieved  for  himself  the  enviable  position  o?  Icnown 
and  named  leader  in  every  movement  of  opposi- 


!'l 


f 


1 


w 


jl 


r 


^)l 


154      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

tion  to  royal  or  niaginterial  prerogative.  In  this 
connection  no  exploit  had  brought  him  so  much 
distinction  us  his  skillful  management  of  the 
popular  uprising  v/hich  had  recently  forced  Gover- 
nor Hutchinson  to  withdraw  the  troops  from 
Boston.  The  event  was  no  by-play  in  the  life 
of  Samuel  Adams,  no  amateur  achievement  ac- 
complished on  the  side,  but  the  serious  business 
of  a  man  who  during  ten  years  had  abandoned 
all  private  pursuits  and  had  embraced  poverty  to 
become  .i  tribune  of  the  people. 

Samuel  Adams  had  not  inherited  poverty  nor 
had  he,  after  all,  exactly  embraced  it,  but  had  as  it 
were  naturally  drifted  into  it  through  indifference 
to  worldly  gain,  the  indifference  which  men  of 
single  and  fixed  purpose  have  for  all  irrelevant 
matters.  The  elder  Samuel  Adams  was  a  mer- 
chant of  substaiice  and  of  such  consequence  in 
the  town  of  Boston  that  in  Harvard  College,  where 
students  were  named  according  to  the  prominence 
of  their  families,  his  son's  name  was  fifth  in  a 
class  of  twenty-two.  In  1748,  upon  the  death  of 
his  father,  Samuel  Junior  accordingly  inherited  a 
very  decent  property,  considered  so  at  least  in 
that  day  —  a  spacious  old  house  in  Purchase  Street 
together  with  a   well-established    malt   business. 


i  1  i 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       133 

For  business,  however,  the  young  man,  nnd  not  so 
young  either,  wus  without  any  aptitude  whatever, 
being  entirely  devoid  of  t'  c  acquisitive  ln.>)tincl 
and  neither  possessing  nor  ever  being  able  to  ac- 
quire any  skill  in  the  fine  art  of  induring  people  to 
give  for  things  more  than  it  cost  to  make  them. 
These  deficiencies  the  young  r  Adams  had  already 
exhibited  before  the  death  of  his  father,  from 
whom  he  received  on  one  occasion  a  thonsand 
pounds,  half  of  which  he  promptly  loaned  to  an  im- 
pecunious friend,  and  which  he  would  in  any  case 
doubtless  hr-**  lost,  as  he  soon  did  the  other  half, 
on  his  own  account.  In  such  incompetent  hands 
the  malt  business  soon  fell  to  be  a  liability  rather 
than  an  asset.  Other  liubilities  accumulated, 
notably  one  incurred  by  the  tax  collectors  of  the 
town  of  Boston,  of  whom  Samuel  Adams  was  one 
during  the  years  from  1756  to  1764.  For  one 
reason  or  another,  on  Adams's  part  certainly  on 
account  oi  his  humane  feelings  and  ;  eral  busi- 
ness inefficiency,  the  collector?  fell  c  ry  year  a 
little  behind  in  the  collectiouss  ^nd  one  day  found 
themselves  declared  i.-  the  ohi  ia!  records  to  be 
indebted  to  the  town  iu  the  sum  of  £9,878.  This 
indebtedness  Mr.  Hutchinson  and  other  gentle- 
men not  well  disposed  towards  Samuel  Adams 


11 


I  ; 


/M 


I, 

t 

'ii 


i 


156      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

conveniently  and  frequently  referred  to  in  later 
years  as  a  "defalcation." 

In  this  year  of  1764,  when  he  had  lost  his  en- 
tire patrimony  except  the  old  house  in  Purchase 
Street,  now  somewhat  rusty  for  want  of  repair, 
Samuel  Adams  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Wells. 
It  was  his  second  marriage,  the  first  having  taken 
place  in  1749,  of  which  the  fruit  was  a  son  and  a 
daughter.     Samuel  Adams  was  then  — it  was  the 
year  of  the  Sugar  Act  —  forty-two  years  old;  that 
is  to  say,  at  the  age  when  a  man's  hair  begins  to 
turn  gray,  when  his  character  is  fixed,  when  his 
powers,  such  as  they  are,  are  fully  matured;  well 
known  as  a  "poor  provider,"  an  improvident  man 
who  had  lost  a  fair  estate,  had  failed  in  business, 
and  was  barely  able,  and  sometimes  not  able,  to 
support  his  small  family.    These  mundane  matters 
concerned  Samuel   Adams  but  little.     To  John 
Adams  he  said  on  one  occasion  that  "he  never 
looked  forwarr    in   life;   never  planned,   laid   a 
scheme,  or  formed  a  design  for  laying  up  anything 
for  himself  or  others  after  him."    This  was  the 
truth,  inexplicable  as  it  must  have  seemed  to  his 
more  provident  cousin.    It  was  even  less  than 
the  truth:  during  the  years  following  1764,  Samuel 
Adams  renounced  all  pretense  of  private  business. 


n 


iv^i 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       157 

giving  himself  wholly  to  public  aflFairs,  while  his 
good  wife,  with  excellent  management,  made  his 
stipend  as  clerk  of  the  Assembly  serve  for  food, 
and  obtained,  through  the  generosity  of  friends  or 
her  own  ingenious  labors,  indispensable  clothes 
for  the  family.    Frugality,  that  much  lauded  vir- 
tue in  the  eighteenth  century,  needed  not  to  be 
preached  in  the  old  Purchase  Street  home;  but 
life  went  on  there,  somehow  or  other,  decently 
enough,  not  without  geniality  yet  with  evident 
piety.     The  old  Bible  is  still  preserved  from  which 
each  evening  some  member  of  the  family  read  a 
chapter,  and  at  every  meal  the  head  of  the  house 
said  grace,  returning  thanks  for  God's  benefits. 
If  Samuel  Adams  at  the  age  of  forty-two  was 
known   for  a   man   who   could   not   successfully 
manage  his  own  affairs,  he  was  also  known,  and 
very  well  known,  for  a  man  with  a  singular  tal- 
ent for  managing  the  affairs  of  the  community; 
he  could  manage  successfully,  for  example,  town 
meetings  and  every  sort   of   business,  great  or 
small,  incidental  to  local  politics.     This  talent  he 
may  have  inherited  from  his  father,   who  was 
himself  a  notable  of  the  neighborhood  -  one  of 
the  organizers  of  the  "New  South"  church,  and 
prominent  about  1724  in  a  club  popularly  known 


It  ' 


h 


158      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

as  the  "Caulkers*  Club, "  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
laying  "plans  for  introducing  certain  persons  into 
places  of  trust  and  power,"  and  was  himself  from 
time  to  time  introduced  into  such  places  of  trust 
and  power  as  justice  of  the  peace,  deacon,  select- 
man, and   member  of  the  provincial  assembly. 
From  an  early  age,  the  younger  Samuel  exhibited 
a  marked  aptitude  for  this  sort  of  activity,  and 
was  less  likely  to  be  found  "in  his  counting-house 
a-counting  of  his  money"  than  in  some  hospitable 
tavern  or  back  shop  discussing  town  topics  with 
local  worthies.     Samuel  Adams  was  bom  to  serve 
on  committees.     He  had  the  innate  slant  of  mind 
that  properly  belongs  to  a  moderator  of  mass 
meetings  called  to  aggravate  a  crisis.     With  the 
soul  of  a  Jacobin,  he  was  most  at  home  in  clubs, 
secret  clubs   of  which   everyone   had  heard  and 
few  were  members,  designed  at  best  to  accomplish 
some  particular  good  for  the  people,  at  all  events 
meeting  regularly  to  sniff  the  approach  of  tyranny 
in   the   abstract,   academically   safeguarding  the 
commonwealth  by  discussing  the  first  principles 
of  government. 

From  the  days  of  Anne  Hutchinson,  Boston 
never  lacked  clubs;  and  the  Caulkers'  Club  was 
the  prototype  of  many,  rather  more  secular  and 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       159 

political  than  religious  or  transcendental,  which 
flourished  in  the  years  preceding  the  Revolution. 
John  Adams,  in  that  Diary  which  tells  us  so  much 
that  we  wish  to  know,  gives  us  a  peep  inside  one 
of  these  clubs,  the  "Caucus  Club,"  which  met 
regularly  at  one  period   in   the  garret  of  Tom 
Dawes's  house.     "There  they  smoke  tobacco  till 
you  cannot  see  from  one  end  of  the  garret  to  the 
other.    There  they  drink  flip,   I  suppose,   and 
there  they  choose  a  moderator  who  puts  questions 
to  the  vote  regularly;  and  selectmen,  assessors, 
collectors,  wardens,  fire-wards,  and  representatives 
are  regularly  chosen  before  they  are  cl.osen  in  the 
town.    Uncle  Fairfield.  Story,  Ruddock.  Adams, 
Cooper,  and  a  rudis  indigeataque  moles  of  others 
are  members.     They  send  committees  to  wait  on 
the  merchants'  club,  and  to  propose  and  join  in  the 
choice  of  men  and  measures. "    The  artist  Copley, 
in  the  familiar  portrait  by  which  posterity  knows 
Samuel  Adams,  chose  to  represent  him  in  conven- 
tional garb,  on  a  public  and  dramatic  occasion, 
standing  erect,  eyes   flashing  and   mouth   firm- 
set,  pointing  with  admonitory  finger  to  the  Char- 
ter of  Massachusetts  Bay —  a  portrait  well  suited 
to  hang  in  the  Art  Museum  or  in  the  meeting 
place  of  the  Daughters  of  the  Revolution.    A 


fl 

i 


>v 


1^       A 


160      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVUi^JTION 

different  effect  would  have  been  produced  if  the 
man  had  been  placed  in  Tom  Dawes's  garret, 
dimly  seen  through  tobacco  smoke,  sitting,  with 
coat  off,  drinking  flip,  in  the  midst  of  Uncle 
Fairfield,  Story,  Cooper,  and  a  rudw  indigestaque 
moles.  This  was  his  native  habitat,  an  environ- 
ment precisely  suited  to  his  peculiar  talent. 

Samuel  Adams  had  a  peculiar  talent,  that  in- 
dispensable combination  of  qualities  poosessed  by 
all   great   revolutionists   of  the   crusading  tj-pe, 
such  as  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  John  Brown,  or 
Mazzini.     When  a  man  abandons  his  business  or 
job   and  complacently  leaves  the  clothing  of  his 
children  to  wife  or  neighbors  in  order  to  drink 
flip  and  talk  politics,  ordinary  folk  are  content  to 
call  him  a  lazy  lout,  ne'er-do-well,  worthless  fel- 
low, or  scami).     Samuel  Adams  was  not  a  scamp. 
He  might  have  been  no  more  than  a  ne'er-do- 
well,  perhaps,  if  cosmic  forces  had   not    oppor- 
tunely provided   him  with  an  occupation  which 
his   contemporaries  and  posterity  could  regard 
as  a  high  service  to  humanity.    In  his  own  eyes, 
this  was  the  view  of  the  situation  which  justified 
his  conduct.    WTien  he  was  about  to  depart  for 
the  first  Continental  Congress,  a  number  of  friends 
contributed  funds  to  furnish  him  forthwith  pre- 


ii  r- 


B  i  !•      ■§ 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       161 

sentable  apparel:  a  suit  of  clothes,  new  wig,  new 
six  pair  of  the  best  silk  hose,  six  pair  of 


hat. 


fine  thread  ditto,  ...  six  pair  of  shoes";  and,  it 
being  "modestly  inquired  of  him  whether  his  fi- 
nances were  not  rather  low  than  otherwise,  he 
replied  it  was  true  that  was  the  case,  but  he  was 
very  indifferent  about  these  matters,  so  that  his  poor 
abilities  were  of  any  service  to  the  public;  upon 
which  the  gentleman  obliged  him  to  accept  a  purse 
containing  about  fifteen  or  twenty  Johannes." 
To  accept  so  much  and  stili  preserve  one's  self- 
respect  would  be  impossible  to  ordinary  men  under 
ordinary  circumstances.  Fate  had  so  ordered  the 
affairs  of  Samuel  Adams  that  integrity  of  char- 
acter required  him  to  be  an  extraordinary  man 
acting  under  extraordinary  circumstances. 

The  character  of  his  mind,  as  well  as  the  out- 
ward circumstances  of  his  life,  predisposed  Samuel 
Adams  to  think  that  a  great  crisis  in  the  history  of 
America  and  of  the  world  confronted  the  men  of 
Boston.  There  was  in  him  some  innate  scholastic 
quality,  some  strain  of  doctrinaire  Puritan  inheri- 
tance diverted  to  secular  interests,  that  gave  direc- 
tion to  all  his  thinking.  In  1743,  upon  receiving 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  from  Harvard  Col- 
lege, he  argued  the  thesis,  "Whether  it  be  lawful 


•  i 


i! 


rv 


II 


H 


t 


162       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

to  resist  the  Supreme  Magistrate,  if  the  Common- 
wealth cannot  otherwise  be  preserved."    We  may 
suppose  that  the  young  man  acquitted  himself 
well,  reasoning  with  great  nicety  in  favor  of  the 
legality   of   an    illegal   action,    doubtless   to    the 
edification  of  Governor  Shirley,  who  was  present 
and  who  perhaps  felt  sufliciently  remote  from  the 
performance,   being  himself  only  an   actual  su- 
preme magistrate  presiding  over  a  real  common- 
wealth.   And  indeed  for  most  young  men  a  college 
thesis  is  but  an  exercise  for  sharpening  the  wits, 
rarely  dangerous  in  its  later  effects.    But  in  the 
case  of  Samuel  Adams,  the  ability  to  distinguish  the 
speculative  from  the  actual  reality  seemed  to  di- 
minish as  the  years  passed.    After  1764,  relieved 
of  the  pressure  of  life's  anxieties  and  daily  nourish- 
ing his  mind  on  premises  and  conclusions  reason- 
ably abstracted  from  the  relative  and  the  condi- 
tioned circumstance,  he  acquired  in  a  high  degree 
the  faculty  of  identifying  reality  with  propositions 
about  it;   so  that,  for  example.  Liberty  seemed 
threatened  if  improperly  defined,  and  a  false  infer- 
ence from  an  axiom  of  politics  appeared  the  same 
as  evil  intent  to  take  away  a  people's  rights.    Thus 
it  was  that  from  an  ear!^    date,  in  respect  to  the 
controversy  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 


II 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       16S 

country,  Samuel  Adams  became  possessed  of  settled 
convictions  that  were  capable  of  clear  and  concise 
presentation  and  that  were  at  once  impersonal 
and  highly  subjective,  for  which  outward  events  — 
the  Stamp  Act,  the  Townshend  duties,  the  ap- 
pointment of  Thomas  Hutchinson  as  Governor, 
or  whatever  — furnished  as  it  were  the  suggestion 
only,  the  convictions  themselves  being  largely  the 
result  of  inward  brooding,  the  finespun  product 
of  his  own  ratiocinative  mind. 

The  crisis  which  thus  threatened  —  in  the  mind 
of  Samuel  Adams  — was  not  an  ordinary  one:  no 
mere  complication  of  affairs,  or  creaking  of  worn- 
out  institutions,  or  honest  difference  of  opinion 
about  the  expediency  or  the  legality  of  measures. 
It  was  a  crisis  engendered  deliberately  by  men  of 
evil  purpose,  public  enemies  well  known  and  often 
named.  Samuel  Adams,  who  had  perhaps  not 
heard  of  even  one  of  the  many  materialistic  in- 
terpretations of  history,  thought  of  the  past  as 
chiefly  instructive  in  connection  with  certain  great 
epochal  conflicts  between  Liberty  and  Tyranny  — 
a  political  Manicheanism,  m  which  the  principle  of 
Liberty  was  embodied  in  the  virtuous  many  end 
the  principle  of  Tyranny  in  the  wicked  i  v. 
Those  who  read  history  must  know  it  for  a  noto- 


I' 


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J 


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I  * 


1 

I 


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it 


I  I 


If- 


4 


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'  hi 

n 


164       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

rious  fact  that  ancient  peoples  had  lost  their  liber- 
ties at  the  hands  of  designing  men,  leagued  and 
selfKwnscious  conspirators  against  the  welfare  of 
the  human  race.    Thus  the  yoke  was  fastened 
upon  the  Romans,  "millions  .  .  .  enslaved  by  a 
few."    Now,  in  the  year  1771,  another  of  these 
epochal  conflicts  was  come  upon  the  world,  and 
Samuel  Adams,  living  in  heroic  days,  was  bound 
to  stand  in  the  forefront  of  the  virtuous  against 
"restless  Adversaries  .  .  .  forming  the  most  dan- 
gerous Plans  for  the  Ruin  of  the  Reputation  of 
the  People,  in  order  to  build  their  ovvn  Greatness 
upon  the  Destruction  of  their  liberties." 

A  superficial  obser\'er  might  easily  fall  into  the 
error  of  supposing  that  the  restless  adversaries  and 
designing  conspirators  against  whom  patriots  had 
to  contend  were  all  in  England;  on  the  contrary, 
the  most  persistent  enemies  of  Liberty  were 
Americans  residing  in  the  midst  of  the  people  whom 
they  sought  to  despoil.  One  might  believe  that  in 
England  "the  general  inclination  is  to  wish  that 
we  may  preserve  our  liberties;  and  perhaps  even 
the  ministry  could  for  some  reasons  find  it  in  their 
hearts  to  be  willing  that  we  should  be  restored  to 
the  state  we  were  in  before  the  passing  of  the 
Stamp  Act."    Even  Lord   Hillsborough,   richly 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       165 

meriting  the   "curses  of   the  disinterested   and 
better  part  of  the  colonists,"  was  by  no  means  "to 
be  reckoned  the  most  inveterate  and  active  of 
all  the  Conspirators  against  our  rights.     There 
are  others  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantick  who  have 
been  more  insidious  in  plotting  the  Ruin  of  our 
Liberties  than  even  he,  and  they  are  the  more 
infamous,  because  the  country  they  would  enslave, 
is  that  very  Country  in  which  (to  use  the  words  of 
their  Adulators  and  Expectants)  they  were  'born 
and  educated.'"    Of  all  these  restless  adversaries 
and  infamous  plotters  of  ruin,  the  chief,  in  the 
mind  of  Samuel  Adams,  was  probably  Mr.  Thomas 
Hutchinson. 

Judged  only  by  what  he  did  and  said  and  by 
such  other  sources  of  information  as  are  open  to 
the  historian,  Thomas  Hutchmson  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been,  prior  to  1771,  an  Enemy  of 
the  Human  Race.  One  of  his  ancestors,  Mistress 
Anne  Hutchinson,  poor  woman,  had  indeed  been 
—  it  was  as  far  back  as  1637  — an  enemy  of  the 
Boston  Church;  but  as  a  family  the  Hutchinsons 
appear  to  have  kept  themselves  singularly  free 
from  notoriety  or  other  grave  reprouch.  Thomas 
Hutchinson  himself  was  born  in  1711  in  Garden 
Court  Street,  Boston,  of  rich  but  honest  parents, 


/. 


''\: 


.  I: 


IM       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
a  difficult  character  which  he  managed  for  many 
years  to   maintain   with   reasonable   credit.    In 
1771,  he  was  a  grave,  elderly  man  of  sixty  years, 
more  distinguished  than  any  of  his  forebears  had 
been,  having  since  the  age  of  twenty-six  been  hon- 
oretl  with  every  important  elective  and  appoint- 
ive office  in  the  province,  including  that  of  gover- 
nor, which  he  had  with  seeming  reluctance  just 
accepted.     It  may  be  that  Thomas  Hutchinson 
was  ambitious;  but  if  he  elbowed  his  way  into 
office  by  solicitation  or  by  the  mean  arts  of  an 
intriguer  the  fact  was  well  concealed.     He  was 
not  u  member  of  the  "Caulkers*  Club."    So  far 
as  is  known,  he  was  not  a  member  of  any  club 
designed    "to    introduce    certain    persons    into 
places  of  trust  and  power";   except   indeed   of 
the  club,   if  one  may  call    it    such,    composed 
of  the  "best  families,"  closely  interrelated  by 
marriage  and  social  intercourse,  mostly  wealthy, 
enjoying  the  leisure  and   the  disposition  to  oc- 
cupy   themselves    with    affairs,    and   commonly 
regarding  themselves  as  forming  a  kind  of  natu- 
ral  aristocracy  whose  vested    duty    it    was    to 
manage  the  commonwealth.     To  this  club  Mr. 
Hutchinson  belonged;  and  it  was  no  doubt  partly 
through  its  influence,  without  any  need  of  solici- 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       167 

tation  on  his  part    that  offices  were  thrust  upon 
him. 

One  morning  in  September,  1760— it  was  the 
day  following  the  death  of  Chief  Justice  Sewall  — 
Mr.  Hutchinson  was  stopped  in  the  street  by  the 
first  lawyer  in  the  province,  Jeremiah  Gridley, 
who  assured  him  th  he,  Mr.  Ilutchirson,  mii«<t 
^  be  Mr.  Sewall's  successor;  and  it  soon  appeared 

that  other  principal  lawyers,  together  with  the 
surviving  judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  were  of 
the  same  opinion  as  Mr.  Gridley.    Although  the 
place  was  an  attractive  one,  Mr.  Hutchinson  dis- 
trusted his  ability  to  discharge  competently  the 
duties  of  a  Chief  Justice,  since  be  had  never  had 
any  systematic  training   as  a  lawyer.    Besides, 
as  he  was  aware,  James  Otis,  Sr.,  who  desir  d  the 
place  and  made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  he  had 
formerly  been  promised  it  by  Governor  Shirley,  at 
once  became  active  in  pressing  his  claims  upon  the 
attention  of  Governor  Bernard.    In  this  solicita- 
tion he  was  joined  by  his  son,  James  Otis,  Jr. 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  on  the  contrary,  refrained  from 
all  solicitation,  so  he  tells  us  at  least,  and  even 
warned  Governor  Bernard  that  it  would  perhaps  be 
wiser  to  avoid  any  trouble  which  the  Otises  might 
be  disposed  to  make  in  case  they  were  disappointed. 


i 


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'  i 


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1  1 


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f* 


168      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

Thia  line  of  conduct  may  have  been  only  a  «hrewder 
form  of  jjolicitution,  the  proof  of  which,  to  acme 
minds,  would  be  that  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  in  fact 
appointed  to  be  Chief  Justice.  This  appointment 
was  afterwards  recalled  as  one  of  Mr.  Hutchin- 
son's many  offenses,  although  at  the  time  it  seems 
to  have  given  general  satisfaction,  especially  to  the 
lawyers. 

The  lawyers  may  well  have  been  pleased,  for  the 
new  Chief  Justice  was  a  man  whose  outstanding 
abilities,  even  more  than  his  place  in  society, 
marked  him  for  responsible  position.     Thomas 
Hutchinson  possessed  the  efficient  mind.    No  one 
surpassed  him  in  wide  and  exact  knowledge,  al- 
ways  at  command,  of  the  history  of  tl.e  province, 
of  its  laws  and  customs,  of  past  and  present  p.  .o- 
ticc  in  respect  to  the  procedure  of  administration. 
Industrious  and  systematic  in  his  habits  of  work, 
conscientious  in  the  performance  of  his  duties 
down  to  the  last  jot  and  tittle  of  the  law,  he  wp 
preeminently  fitted  for  the  neat  and  expeditious 
dispatch  of  official  business;  and  his  sane  and 
trenchant  mind,  habituated  by  long  practice  to 
the  easy  mastery  of  details,  was  prompt  to  pass 
upon  any  practical  matter,  however  complicated, 
an  intelligent  and  just  judgment.    It  was  doubtless 


2-  I 


I 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  COXDUrT       109 

thought,  in  an  age  when  the  law  was  not  too  highly 
specialized  to  be  understood  by  any  but  the  in- 
doctrinated, that  these  trails  would  mal.e  him  a 
good  judge,  as  they  had  made  him  a  good  coun- 
cilor.  Not  all  people,  it  is  true,  are  attracted  by 
the  ifficient  mind;  and  Mr.  Hutchinson  in  the 
course  of  years  had  made  enemies,  among  whom 
were  many  who  still  thought  of  him  as  the  man 
chiefly  lesponsible  for  the  abolition,  some  eleven 
years  before,  of  what  was  probably  the  most 
vicious  system  of  currency  known  to  colonial 
America.  Mevertheless,  in  the  days  before  the 
passing  of  the  Stamp  Act,  Mr.  Hutchinson  was 
commonly  well  thought  of,  both  for  character  and 
ability,  and  might  still  without  offense  be  men- 
tioned as  a  useful  and  honored  public  servant. 

Mr.  Hutchinson  did  not,  at  any  time  in  his 
life,  regard  himself  as  an  Enemy  of  the  Human 
Race,  or  of  America,  or  even  of  liberty  rightly 
considered.  Perhaps  he  had  rot  the  fine  enthu- 
siasm for  the  Human  Race  that  Herd^.  or  Jean 
Jacques  Rousseau  had;  but  at  least  he  wished  it 
well;  and  to  America,  the  country  in  which  he 
was  born  and  educated  and  in  which  he  had  always 
lived,  he  was  profoundly  attached.  Of  America 
he  was  as  proud  as  a  cultivated   and   unbigoted 


r 


.1 


11 


^  '..f 


M 


170       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

man  well  could  be,  extremely  jealous  of  her  good 
name  abroad  and  prompt  to  stand,  in  any  way 
that  was  appropriate  and  customary,  in  defense 
of  her  rights  and  liberties.     To  rights  and  liber- 
ties in  general,  and  to  those  of  America  in  par- 
ticular, he  had  given  long  and  careful  thought. 
It  was  perhaps  characteristic  of  his  practical  mind 
to  distinguish  the  word  liberty  from  the  various 
things  which  it  might  conceivably  represent,  and 
to  think  that  of  these  various  things  some  were 
worth  more  than  others,  what  any  of  them  was 
worth  being  a  relative  matter  depending  largely 
upon  circumstances.     Speaking  generally,  liberty 
in  the  abstract,  apart  from  particular  and  known 
conditions,  was  only  a  phrase,  a  brassj  tinkle  in 
Mr.  Hutchinson's  ear,  meaning  nothing  unless  it 
meant  mere  absence  of  all  constraint.     The  liberty 
which  Mr.  Hutchinson  prized  was  not  the  same 
as  freedom  from  constraint.    Not  liberty  in  this 
sense,  or  in  any  sense,  but  the  welfare  of  a  people 
neatly  ordered  for  them  by  good  government, 
was  what  he  took  to  be  the  chief  end  of  politics; 
and  from  this  conception  it  followed  that  "in  a 
remove  from  a  state  of  nature  to  the  most  perfect 
state  of  government  there    must  be  a  great  re- 
straint of  natural  liberty." 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       171 
The  limitations  proper  to  be  placed  upon  natu- 
ral liberty  could  scarcely  be  determined  by  ab- 
stract speculation  or  with  mathematical  precision, 
but  would  obviously  vary  according  to  the  char- 
acter and  circumstances  of  a  people,  always  keep- 
ing in  mind  the  "peace  and  good  order"  of  the 
particular  community  as  the  prime  object.     In 
all  such  matters  reasonable  men  would  seek  en- 
lightenment not  in  the  Utopias  of  philosopiicrs 
but  in  the  history  of  nations;  and,  taking  a  large 
view  of  history,  the  history  more  particularly  of 
the  British  Empire  and  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
it  seemed  to  Mr.  Hutchinson,  as   it  seemed  to 
John  Locke  and   to  Baron  Montesquieu,  that  a 
proper  balance  between  liberty  and  authority  had 
been  very  nearly  attained  in  the  British  Con- 
stitution, as  nearly  perhaps  as  common   human 
frailty  would  permit.    The  prevailing  "thirst  for 
liberty,"  which  seemed  to  be  "the  ruling  passion 
of  the  age,"  Mr.  Hutchinson  was  therefore  able 
to  contemplate  with  much  sanity  and  detachment. 
"In  governments  under  arbitrary  rule"  such  a 
passion  for  liberty  might,  he  admitted,  "have  a 
salutary  effect;  but  in  governments  in  which  as 
much  freedom  is  enjoyed  as  can  consist  with  the 
ends   of  government,   as   was   the   case   in   this 


S    L 


vV 


i 


M 


I 


i' 


^• 


172      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
Province,  it  must  work  anarchy  and  confusion 
unless  there  be  some  external  power  to  restrain  it." 
In    1771,    Thomas   Hutchinson    was   perfectly 
convinced  that   this   passion  for  libert.  ,  during 
several  years  rising  steadily  in  the  heads  of  the 
most  unstable  part  of  the  population,  the  most 
unstable  "both  for  character  and  estates,"  had 
brought  Massachusetts  Bay  to  a  state  not  far 
removed  from   anarchy.     Not  that  he  was  un- 
aware of  the  mistakes  of  ministers.     The  meas- 
ures of  Mr.  Grenville   he  had   regarded   as   un- 
wise from  every  point  of  view.     In  behalf  of  the 
traditional  privileges  of  the  colonies  —  privileges 
which  their  conduct  had  well  justified  — ar      in 
behalf  of  the  welfare  of  the  Empire,  he  had  pro- 
tested against  these  measures,  as  also  later  against 
the  measures  of  Mr.  Townshend;  and  of  all  these 
measures  he  still  held  the  same  opinion,  that  they 
were  unwise  measures.    Nevertheless,  Parliament 
had  undoubtedly  a  legal  right  —  other  rights  in  the 
political  sense,  Mr.  Hutchinson  knew  nothing  of — 
to  pass  them;  and  the  passing  of  legal  measures, 
however  unwise,  was  not  to  his  mind  clear  evi- 
dence of  a  conspiracy  to  establish  absolute  des- 
potism  on   the   ruins   of  English   liberty.     Mr. 
Hutchinson  was  doubtless  temperamentally  less 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       178 

inclined  to  fear  tyranny  than  anarchy.  Of  the 
two  evils,  he  doubtless  preferred  such  oppression 
as  might  result  from  parliamentary  taxation  to 
any  sort  of  liberty  the  attainment  of  which  might 
seem  to  require  the  looting  of  his  ancestral  man- 
sion  by  a  Boston  mob.  In  1771,  at  the  time  of 
his  accession  to  the  governorship,  Mr.  Hutchinson 
was  therefore  of  opinion  that  "there  must  be  an 
abridgment  of  ivhat  is  called  English  liberty." 

The  liberty  Thomas  Hutchinson  enjoyed  least 
and  desired  most  to  have  abridged  was  the  liberty 
of  being  governed,  in  that  province  where  he  had 
formerly  been  happy  in  the  competent  discharge 
of  official  duties,  by  a  self-constituted  and  illegal 
popular  government  intrenched  in  the  town  of 
Boston.  In  a  letter  which  he  wrote  in  1765  but 
did  not  send,  he  said: 


•I 
1 1 


It  will  be  some  amusement  to  you  to  have  a  more  cir- 
cumstantial  account  of  the  model  of  government  among 
us.  I  will  begin  with  the  lowest  branch,  partly  legisla- 
tive, partly  executive.  This  consists  of "; .'  e  rabble  of 
the  town  of  Boston,  headed  by  one  Mackintosh,  who, 
I  imagine,  you  never  heard  of.  He  is  a  bold  fellow,  and 
as  likely  for  a  Masaniello  as  you  can  well  conceive. 
When  there  is  occasion  to  burn  or  hang  eflBgies  or  pull 
down  houses,  these  are  employed;  but  since  govern- 
ment has  been  brought  to  a  system,  they  are  somewhat 


'  :.! 


r  ^ ;  ^'{ 


IN 


! 


^ 


I 


174       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

controlled  by  a  superior  set  consisting  of  the  master- 
masons,  and  carpenters,  &c.,  of  the  town  of  Boston. 
When  anything  of  more  importance  is  to  be  determined, 
as  opening  the  custom-house  on  any  matter  of  trade, 
these  are  under  the  direction  of  a  committee  of  the 
merchants.  Mr.  Rowe  at  their  head,  then  Molyneaux, 
Soloman  Davis,  &c. :  but  all  afiFairs  of  a  general  nature, 
opening  of  the  courts  of  law,  &c.,  this  is  proper  for  a 
general  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  where 
Otis,  with  his  mob-high  eloquence,  prevails  in  every 
motion,  ai-d  the  town  first  determine  what  is  necessaiy 
to  be  done,  and  then  apply  either  to  the  Governor  or 
Council  or  resolve  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  General 
Court  to  correct  it;  and  it  would  be  a  very  extraordi- 
nary resolve  indeed  that  is  not  carried  into  execution. 

This  was  in  1765.     In  1770,  the  matk  •  had 
ceased  tj  be  amusing,  for  every  year  the  model 
government  was  brought  to  a  greater  perfection, 
so  that  at  last  the  Town  Meeting,  prescriptively 
cor  )osec;  of  certain  qualified  voters  and  confined 
.J  the  determination  of  strictly  local  matters, 
had  not  only  usurped  all  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment in  the  province,  which  was  bad  enough,  but 
was  completely  under  the  thumb  of  every  Tom, 
Dick,  and  Harry  who  might  wish  to  attend,  which 
was  manifestly  still   worse.     "There  is  a  Town 
Meeting,  no  sort  of  regard  being  had  to  any 
qualification  of  voters,  but  all  the  inferior  people 


■■\ 


A  IJTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       175 

meet  together;  and  at  a  late  meeting  the  inhabi- 
tants of  other  towns  who  happened  to  be  in  town, 
mixed  with  them,  and  made,  they  say  themselves, 
near  3000,  —  their  newspapers  say  4000,  when  it  is 
not  likely  there  are  1500  legal  voters  in  the  town. 
It  is  in  other  words  being  under  the  government 
of  a  mob.     This  has  given  the  lower  part  of  the 
people  such  a  sense  of  their  importance  that   a 
gentleman  does  not  meet  with  what  used  to  be 
common  civility,  and  we  are  sinking  into  i)erfect 
barbarism.  .  .  .    The  spirit  of  anarchy  which  pre- 
vails in  Boston  is  more  than  I  am  able  to  cope 
with."     The  instigators  of  the  mob,  it  was  well 
known,  were  certain  artful  and  self-seeking  dema- 
gogues, of  whom   the   chief   had    formerly   been 
James  Otis;  out  in  late  years  Mr.  Otis,  "with  his 
mob-high  eloquence,"  had  given  way  to  an  abler 
man,  Samuel  Adams,  than  whom,  Mr.  Hutchin- 
son thought,  there  was  not  "a  greater  incendi- 
ary in  the  King's  dominion,  or  a  man  of  greater 
malignity   of  heart,  [or  one]   who   less   scruples 
any  measure  however  criminal  to  accomplish  his 
purpose". " 

The  letter,  undated  and  undirected,  in  which 
Thomas  Hutchinson  pronounced  this  deliberate 
judgment  on  Samuel  Adams,  was  probably  written 


I 


!: 


s 


I 


f 


176      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

about  the  time  of  his  accession  to  the  Governor- 
ship; that  is  to  say,  about  the  time  when  Mr. 
Johnson,  the  Connecticut  Agent,  was  writing  to 
Wedderburn  that  "the  people  seem  to  grow  weary 
of  altercations,"  and  that  "a  little  discreet  conduct 
on  both  sides"  would  perfectly  restore  cordial  re- 
lations between  Britain  and  her  colonies.     In  the 
way  of  "a  little  discreet  conduct,"  even  a  very 
little,  not  much  was  to  be  hoped  for  from  either 
Governor  Hutchinson  or  Samuel  Adams  in  their 
dealings  with   each  other.    Unfortunately,  they 
had  dealings  with  each  other:  in  the  performance 
of  official  functions,  their  incommensurable  and 
repellent  minds  were  necessarily  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  same  matters  of  public  concern.    Both, 
unfortunately,  lived  in  Boston  and  were  likely 
any  day  to  come  face  to  face  round  the  corner  of 
some  or  other  narrow  street  of  that  small  town. 
That  reciprocal  exasperation  engendered  by  reason- 
able propinquity,  so  essential  to  the  life  of  alter- 
cations, was  therefore  a  perpetual  stimulus  to  both 
men,  confirming  each  in  his  obstinate  opinion  of 
the  other  as  a  malicious  and  dangerous  enemy 
of  all  that  men  hold  dear.     Thus  it  was  that  dur- 
ing the  years  1771  and  1772,  when  if  ever  it  ap- 
peared that  others  were  "growing  weary  of  alter- 


I 


sJ 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       177 

cations,"  these  honorable  men  and  trusted  leaders 
did  what  they  could  to  perpetuate  the  controversy. 
By  giving  or  taking  occasion  to  recall  ancient 
grudges  or  revive  fruitless  disputes,  wittingly  or 
unwittingly  they  together  managed  during  this 
time  of  calm  to  keei  the  dying  embers  alive 
against  the  day  when  some  rising  wind  might  blow 
them  into  devouring  flames. 

With  Samuel  Adams  it  was  a  point  of  principle 
to  avoid  discreet  conduct  as  much  as  possible. 
In  his  opinion,  the  great  crisis  which  was  his  soul's 
abiding  place,  wherein  he  nourished  his  mind  and 
fortified   his   will,   admitted   of  no   compromise. 
Good  will  was  of  no  avail  in  dealing  with  the 
"Conspirators  against  our  Liberties,"  the  very 
essence  of  whose  tactics  it  was  to  assume  the  mask 
of  benevolence,  and  so  divide,  and  by  dividing 
disarm,  the   people;    "flattering   those   who   are 
pleased  with  flattery;  forming  connections  with 
them,  introducing  Levity,  Luxury,  and  Indolence, 
and  assuring  them   that  if  they  are  quiet   the 
Ministry  will  alter  their  Measures. "    During  these 
years  there  was  no  power  in  the  course  of  events 
or  in  the  tongue  of  man  to  move  him  in  the  con- 
vie  L*  a  that  "if  the  Liberties  of  America  are  ever 
completely  ruined,  it  will  in  all  probability  be  the 


i 


'    I 


1  ', 

i 


a 


I 


.  f 


m         ij 


if 


'  I- 


178      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

consequence  of  a  mistaken  notion  of  prudence^ 
which  leads  men  to  acqtiiesce  in  measures  of  the 
most  destructive  tendency  i'or  the  sake  of  present 
ease."  Never,  therefore,  were  "the  poUHcal  af- 
fairs of  America  in  a  more  dangeroi  e"  t'lan 
when  the  people  had  seemingly  ^lown  weary 
of  altercations  and  Parliament  could  endure  an 
entire  session  "without  one  offensive  measure." 
The  chief  danger  of  all  was  that  the  people  would 
think  there  was  no  danger.  Millions  could  never 
be  enslaved  by  a  few  "if  all  possessed  the  indepen- 
dent spirit  of  Brutus  who  to  his  immortal  honor 
expelled  the  proud  Tyrant  of  Rome. "  During  the 
years  of  apathy  and  indifference  Samuel  Adams 
accordingly  gave  his  days  and  nights,  with  undi- 
minished enthusiasm  and  a  more  trenchant  acer- 
bity, to  the  task  of  making  Brutuses  of  the  men 
of  Boston  that  the  fate  of  Rome  might  not  befall 
America. 

They  were  assured  in  many  an  essay  by  this  new 
Candidus  that 

The  liberties  of  our  country,  the  freedom  of  our  civil 
constitution,  are  worth  defending  at  all  hazards:  and 
it  is  our  duty  to  defend  them  against  all  attacks.  We 
have  received  them  as  a  fair  inheritance  from  our 
worthy  ancestors.     They  purchased  them  for  us  with 


V 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       179 

toil  and  danger  and  expense  of  treasure  and  blood;  and 
transmitted  them  to  us  with  care  and  diligence.     It 
will  bring  an  everlasting  mark  of  infamy  upon  the 
present  generation,  enlightened  as  it  is.if  weslnald  suf- 
fer them  to  be  wrested  from  us  by  violence  without  a 
struggle;  or  be  cheated  out  of  them  by  the  artifices  of 
false  and  designing  men.    Of  the  latter  we  are  in  most 
danger  at  present.    Let  us  therefore  be  aware  of  it.    Let 
us  contemplate  our  forefathers  and  posterity;  and  re- 
solve to  maintain  the  rights  bequeathed  to  us  from  the 
former,  for  the  sake  of  the  latter.     Instead  of  sitting 
down  satisfied  with  the  efforts  we  have  already  made, 
which  is  the  wish  of  our  enemies,    he  necessity  of  the 
times,  more  than  ever,  calls  for  our  utmost  circumspec- 
tion, deliberation,  fortitude  and  perseverance.     Let  us 
remember  that  "if  we  suffer  tamely  a  lawless  attack 
upon  our  liberty,  we  encourage  it,  and  involve  others 
m  our  doom!"     It  is  a   very  serious  consideration, 
which  should  deeply  impress  our  minds,  that  mUlions 
yet  unborn  may  be  the  miserable  sharers  in  the  event. 

These  were  days  when  many  a  former  Brutus 
seemed  ready  to  betray  the  cause.  Deserted  by 
James  Otis,  whom  he  had  supplanted,  and  by 
John  Hancock,  whose  great  influence  he  had 
formerly  exploited  and  whom  he  had  "led  about 
like  an  ape,"  as  was  currently  reported,  Samuel 
Adams  suflFered  a  measure  of  eclipse.  The  As- 
sembly would  no  longer  do  his  bidding  in  respect 
to  the  vital  question  of  whether    the    General 


lii 


,  i) 


,3 


idO      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

Court  might  be  called  by  the  Governor  to  meet 
outside  of  Boston;  and  it  even  imposed  upon  him, 
as  one  of  a  committee,  the  humiliating  task  of 
presenting  an  address  to  Mr.  Hutchinson,  ac- 
knowledging his  right  to  remove  the  legislature  to 
any  place  he  liked  —  "to  Housatonic,  in  the  west- 
ern extreme  of  the  province, "  if  he  thought  fit. 
There  was  even  grave  danger  that  the  Governor 
would  be  satisfied  with  this  concession  and  would 
recall  the  Court  to  s't  in  Boston.  Boston  was 
indeed  the  very  place  where  Samuel  Adams  wished 
to  have  it  sit;  but  to  attain  a  right  end  in  a  wrong 
manner  would  be  to  suffer  a  double  defeat,  losing 
at  once  the  point  of  principle  and  the  grievance 
necessary  for  maintaining  the  contention.  Friends 
of  the  Government  were  much  elated  at  the  wan- 
ing influence  of  the  Chief  Incendiary;  and  Mr. 
Sparhawk  condescended  to  express  a  certain  sym- 
pathy for  their  common  enemy,  now  that  he  was  so 
much  diminished,  "harassed,  dependent,  in  their 
power."  It  was  indeed  under  great  difficulties, 
during  these  years  when  Massachusetts  was  al- 
most without  annals,  that  Samuel  Adams  labored 
to  make  Brutuses  of  the  men  of  Boston. 

So  far  deserted  by  his  friends,  Samuel  Adams 
might  never  have  succeeded  in  overcoming  these 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       181 
difficulties  without  the  assistunce  presently  ren- 
dered by  his  enemies.     Of  those  who  were  of 
invaluable  aid  to  him  in  this  way,  Thomas  Hutch- 
inson was  one.    The  good  Governor,  hnving  read 
his  instructions,  knew  what  his  duties  were.    One 
of  them  manifestly  was  to  s»<ind  in  defense  of 
Government;  and,  when  Government  was  every 
day  being  argumentatively  attacked,  to  provide, 
as  a  counter-irritant,  arguments  in  defense  of  Gov- 
ernment.   Imagining  that  facts  determined  con- 
clusions and  conc'"sions  directed  conduct,  Mr. 
Hutchinson  hoped  to  diminish  the  influence   of 
Samuel  Adams  by  showing  that  the  hitter's  facts 
were  wrong,  and    that    his    inferences,  however 
logically  deduced,  were  therefore  not  to  be  taken 
seriously.     "I  have  taken  much  pains,"  he  says, 
"to  procure  writers  to  answer  the  pieces  in  the 
newspapi  -s  which  do  so  much   mischief  among 
the  people,  and  have  two  or  three  engaged  with 
Draper,  besides  a  new  press,  and  a  young  printer 
who  says  he  will  not  be  frightened,  and  I  hope  for 
some  good  effect. " 

The  Governor  had  read  his  instructions,  but 
not  the  mind  of  Samuel  Adams  or  the  minds  of 
the  many  men  who,  like  the  Chief  Incendiary, 
were  prepared   "to  cultivate   the  sensations  of 


..I 


V 


182       TIIE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

freedom."  Perhapii  the  only  "good  effect"  of 
h'    "pieces"  was  to  furnish  exceUent  theses  for 

.muel  Adams  to  di.spute  iiiK)n,  which  he  did  with 
unrivaled  shrewdness  each  week  in  the  Jonton 
Gazette  under  the  thin  disguise  of  Candidus, 
Valerius  Poplicola,  or  Vindex.  To  this  lust  name, 
Vindex,  Mr.  Hutchinson  thought  there  might 
appropriately  have  been  added  another,  such  as 
Malignus  or  Invidus.  And  indeed  of  all  these 
disputative  essays,  in  the  Boston  Gazette  or  in 
Mr.  Draper's  paper,  one  may  say  that  the  ap- 
parent aim  was  to  win  a  dialectic  victory  and 
the  obvious  result  to  prove  that  ill  will  existed  by 
exhibiting  it. 

Thomas  Hutchinson's  faith  in  the  value  of 
disputation  was  net  easily  disturbed;  and  after 
two  years,  when  it  appeared  that  his  able  lieu- 
tenants writing  in  Mr.  Draper's  newspaper  were 
still  as  lar  as  ever  from  bringing  the  controversy 
to  a  conclusion,  he  could  no  lunger  refrain  from 
trying  his  own  practiced  hand  at  an  argument  — 
which  he  did  in  a  carefully  prepared  address  to 
the  General  Court,  delivered  January  6,  1773. 
"I  have  pleased  myself  for  several  years,"  he 
said,  "with  hopes  that  the  cause  [of  the  "present 
disturbed  and  disordered  state"  of  government] 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       183 

would  cease  of  itself,  and  the  effect  with  it,  but 
I  am  disapiiointed ;  and  I  may  not  any  lunger, 
consistent  with  my  duty  to  the  King,  and  my 
regard  to  the  interests  of  the  province,  delay 
CH)mmunicating  my  sentiments  to  you  upon  a 
matter  of  so  great  importance."     The  cause  of 

»ir  present  ditBculties  Mr.  Hutchinson  thought 
as  evident  as  the  fact  itself:  a  disturbed  state  of 
government  having  always  followed,  must  have 
been  coused  by  the  denial  of  the  authority  of 
Parliament  to  make  laws  binding  the  province. 
Upon  tt  right  resolution  of  this  question  everything 
depended. 

The  Governor  accordingly  confined  himself  to 
presenting,  all  in  good  temper,  a  concise  and  re- 
markably well-articulated  argument  to  prove  that 
"no  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  supreme 
authority  of  Parliament  and  the  total  indepen- 
dence of  the  colonies";  of  which  argument  the 
conclusion  must  be.  inasmuch  as  the  total  in- 
dependence of  the  colonies  was  not  conceivably 
any  one's  thought,  that  supreme  authority  rested 
with  Parliament.  This  conclusion  once  admitted, 
it  was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  disturbances 
would  cease;  for  "if  the  supremacy  of  Parliament 
shall  no  longer  be  denied,  it  will  follow  that  the 


6 


J . ' 


184       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

mere  exercise  of  its  authority  can  be  no  matter  of 
grievance."  In  closing,  his  Excellency  expressed 
the  desire,  in  case  the  two  Houses  did  not  agree 
with  his  exposition  of  the  Constitution,  to  know 
their  objections.  "They  may  be  convincing  to 
me,  or  I  may  be  able  to  satisfy  you  of  the  in- 
suflBciency  of  them.  In  either  case,  I  hope  we 
shall  put  an  end  to  those  irregularities  which  ever 
will  be  the  portion  of  a  government  where  the 
supreme  authority  is  controverted."  In  this 
roundabout  way.  Governor  Hutchinson  finally 
reached  as  a  conclusion  the  prepossession  with 
which  he  began;  namely,  that  whereas  a  disturbed 
state  of  government  is,  ex  hypothesi,  a  vital  evil, 
assertions  or  denials  which  tend  to  cause  the  evil 
must  be  unfounded. 

It  happened  that  both  Houses,  the  lower  House 
especially,  remained  unconvinced  by  the  Gover- 
nor's exposition  of  the  Constitution;  and  both 
Houses  took  advantage  of  his  invitation  to  present 
their  objections.  The  committee  which  the  lower 
House  appointed  to  formulate  a  reply  found  their 
task  no  slight  one,  not  from  any  doubt  that 
Mr.  Hutchinson  was  in  error,  but  from  the  diflS- 
culty  of  constructing  an  argument  that  might 
be   regarded    as    polemically  adequate.     At  the 


if 


I  'I- 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       185 

request   of   Major    Hawley,    John    Adams    was 

accordingly   "invited,   requested,   and   urged   to 

meet  the  committee,  v*hich  he  did  every  evening 

till  the  report  \^as  finished."     When  the  first 

draft  of  a  reoly,  probably  drawn  by  Dr.  Joseph 

Warren,    .\'ua  piostnted  to  Mr.  Adams  for  his 

criticism    h<^  " modes' ly  suggested  to  them  the 

expediem.i    of   h:iivv.g  out   many   popular   and 

eloquent  periods,  and  of  discussing  the  question 

with  the  Governor  upon  principles  more  especially 

legal  and  constitutional,"  there  being  in  this  first 

draft,  so  Mr.  Adams  thought,  "no  answer,  nor 

any  attempt  to  answer  the  Governor's  legal  and 

constitutional   arguments,   such  as   they   were." 

And  so,  being  "very  civilly  requested"   by  the 

committee  to  make  such  changes  in  the  draft  as 

seemed  to  him  desirable,  Mr.  Adams  "drew  a  line 

over  the  most  eloquent  parts  of  the  oration  they 

had  before  them,  and  introduced  those  legal  and 

historical  authorities  which  appear  on  the  record." 

The  reply,  prepared  in  this  way   and   finally 

adopted  by  the  Assembly,  was  longer  and  more 

erudite  than  Mr.  Hutchinson's  address.    To  meet 

the  Governor's  major  premise  and  thus  undermine 

his   entire   argument,   legal   precedents   and   the 

facts  of  history  were  freely  drawn  upon  to  prove 


n 


warn 


%  fij 


1 

11 


186      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

that  the  colonies  were  properly  "outside  of  the 
Realm,"  and  therefore,  although  parts  of  the 
Empire  by  virtue  of  being  under  the  special  juris- 
diction of  the  Crown,  not  subject  in  all  matters 
to  parliamentary  legislation.  Law  and  history 
thus  supported  the  contention,  contrary  to  the 
Governor's  assertion,  that  a  line  not  only  could 
be  but  always  had  been  "drawn  between  the 
supreme  authority  of  Parliament  and  the  total 
independence  of  the  colonies."  Apart  from  any 
question  of  law  or  fact,  the  Assembly  thought  it 
of  high  practical  importance  that  this  line  should 
be  maintained  in  the  future  as  in  the  past;  for, 
"if  there  be  no  such  line,"  none  could  deny  the 
Governor's  inference  that  "either  the  colonies  are 
vassals  of  the  Parliament,  or  they  are  totally 
independent";  upon  which  the  Assembly  would 
observe  only  that,  "as  it  cannot  be  supposed  to 
have  been  the  intention  of  the  parties  in  the 
compact  that  we  should  be  reduced  to  a  state  of 
vassalage,  the  conclusion  is  that  it  was  their  sense 
that  we  were  thus  independent. "  With  veiy  few 
exceptions,  everyone  who  was  of  the  patriot  way 
of  thinking  regarded  the  Assembly's  reply  as  a 
complete  refutation  of  the  argument  presented 
in  Governor  Hutchinson's  address. 


■I 


I 
1.^ 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       187 

In  the  Governor's  opinion,  the  disturbed  state 
of  government  to  which  he  had  referred  in  his 
adflress  was  at  this  time  brought  to  the  highest 
pitch  by  the  committees  of  correspondence  re- 
cently established  throughout  the  province  —  an 
event  long  desired  and  now  brought  to  pass  by 
Samuel  Adams.  That  something  might  be  done 
by  a  coordinated  system  of  local  committees  was 
an  "undigested  thought"  that  dropped  from 
Adams's  mind  while  writing  a  letter  to  Arthur  Lee 
in  September,  1771.  At  that  time,  such  was  the 
general  apathy  of  the  people,  it  would  clearly  "be 
an  arduous  task  for  any  man  to  attempt  to  awaken 
a  suflBcient  Number  in  the  colonies  to  so  grand  an 
undertaking. "  But  Samuel  Adams,  who  thought 
"nothing  should  be  despaired  of,"  took  upon  him- 
self the  performance  of  this  arduous  task.  Such 
committees,  if  they  were  anywhere  needed,  were 
certa'»-'  needed  in  Massachusetts,  where  the 
peop;  red  under  a  "state  of  perfect  Des- 

potism, daily  submitting  to  be  ruled  by  a  native 
Governor  who  refused  to  accept  a  grant  from  the 
General  Court,  received  his  salary  from  London, 
and  governed  the  province  according  to  his  instruc- 
tions. "  Is  it  not  enough,"  asked  Valerius  Poplicola 
in  the  G"''.etie,  "to  have  a  Governor  .  .  .  pen- 


i.  ' 


•  r 


III'    !■ 


n\ 


i"      •* 

11       .>% 


188      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

stoned  by  those  on  whom  his  existence  depends? 
...  Is  Life,  Property,  and  Every  Thing  dear  and 
sacred,  to  be  now  submitted  to  the  Decisions  of 
pension'd  judges,  holding  their  places  during 
the  pleasure  of  such  a  Governor,  and  a  Council 
perhaps  overawed?" 

Conf routed  by  so  unprecedented  a  situation, 
it  occurred  to  Samuel  Adams  that  perhaps  Mr. 
Hutchinson  himself  might  be  induced  to  come  to 
his  assistance.  Late  in  1772  he  accordingly  got 
the  Boston  town  rooeting  to  present  to  the  Gover- 
nor an  address  expressing  great  alarm  at  the  estab- 
lishment of  salaries  for  judges,  i\nd  praying  that 
the  legislature,  which  was  to  meet  the  2d  of  De- 
cember, might  not  be  prorogued.  It  was  possible 
that  in  replying  the  Governor  might  take  a  "high 
tone,"  refusing  the  request  as  an  interference  with 
his  own  prerogative;  but,  as  it  was  clearly  the 
right  of  the  people  to  petition,  for  the  Governor 
to  refuse  would  be,  Samuel  Adams  thought,  to 
"put  himself  in  the  wrong,  in  the  opinion  of  every 
honest  and  sensible  man;  the  consequence  of  which 
will  be  that  such  measures  as  the  people  may 
determine  upon  to  save  themselves  .  .  .  will  be 
the  more  reconcilable  even  to  cautious  minds,  and 
thus  we  may  expect  that  unanimity  which  we  wish 


f       t. 


¥M 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       189 

for."  The  Governor,  in  a  tone  that  might  be 
called  "high,"  d'd  in  fact  object  to  the  request  as 
not  properly  a  function  of  town  meetings  and  thus 
furnished  the  occasion  for  organizing  the  com- 
mittees which  he  thought  so  disturbing  to  the 
state  of  government. 

It  was  on  November  2,  1772,  upon  a  motion  of 
Samuel  Adams,  that  a  committee  was  appointed 
by  a  town  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  "to  state  the 
Rights  of  the  colonies  and  of  this  Province  in 
particular,  as  Men,  as  Christians,  and  as  Sub- 
jects; to  communicate  and  publish  the  same  to 
the  several  Towns  in  this  Province  and  to  the 
World  as  the  sense  of  this  Town,  with  the  Infringe- 
ments and  Violations  thereof  that  have  been,  or 
from  time  to  time  may  be  made  .  .  .  requesting  of 
each  Town  a  free  communication  of  their  Senti- 
ments on  this  Subject."  The  report  of  the  c«  vn- 
mittee,  adopted  November  20,  announced  to  the 
world  that,  as  men,  the  colonists,  and  those  of 
Massachusetts  in  particular,  were  possessed  of  cer- 
tain "Natural  Rights,"  among  them  the  right  to 
life,  liberty,  and  property;  and  that,  inasmuch  as 
"men  enter  into  Society  ...  by  voluntary  con- 
sent, "  they  still  retained  "every  Natural  Right  not 
expressly  given  up  or  by  the  nature  of  the  So- 


i 


i 


190      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

cial  Compact  necessarily  ceded.  *'  Being  Christians 
as  well  as  men,  the  colonists  enjoyed  also  those 
rights  formulated  in  "the  institutes  of  the  great 
Lawgiver  and  head  of  the  Christian  Church,  .  .  . 
written  and  promulgated  in  the  New  Testament. " 
Lastly,  being  Englishmen,  the  colonists  were,  "  by 
the  Common  Law  of  England,  exclusive  of  all 
charters  from  the  Crown,  .  .  .  entitled,  and  by  the 
acts  of  the  British  Parliament  .  .  .  declared  to 
be  entitled  to  all  the  Liberties  and  Privileges 
of  Subjects  born  .  .  .  within  the  Realm."  The 
infringements  which  had  been  made  upon  these 
rights,  although  well  known,  were  once  more 
stated  at  length;  and  all  the  towns  of  the  prov- 
ince were  requested,  in  case  they  agreed  with  the 
sentiments  of  the  Town  of  Boston,  to  unite  in  a 
common  effort  "to  rescue  from  impending  ruin 
our  happy  and  glorious  Constitution."  For  its 
part,  the  Town  of  Boston  was  confident  that  the 
'visdom  of  the  other  towns,  as  well  as  their  regard 
for  themselves  and  the  rising  generation,  would 
not  suffer  them  "to  dose,  or  set  supinely  indiffer- 
ent on  the  brink  of  destruction,  while  the  Iron 
hand  of  oppression  is  daily  tearing  the  choicest 
Fruit  from  the  fair  Tree  of  Liberty. " 
Moderate  men  might  think,  in  the  winter  of 


■:  % 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       191 

177.'J,  that  "the  Iron  hrnd  of  oppression  tearing 
the  choicest  Fruit  from  the  Fair  Tree  of  Liberty" 
was  a  figure  of  speech  which  did  not  shape  itself 
with  nice  flexibility  to  the  exact  form  and  pressure 
of  observable  facts.    It  is  the  limitation  of  moder- 
ate men  to  be  much  governed  by  observable  facts; 
and  if  the  majority  could  not  at  once  rise   to 
the  rhetoric  of  Samuel  Adams,  it  was  doubtless 
because  they  had  not  his  instinctive  sense  of  the 
Arch    Conspirator's  truly  implacable  enmity   to 
America.    The  full  measure  of  this  enmity  Mr. 
Adams  lived  in  the  hope  of  some  day  revealing. 
It  was  of  course  well  known  that  Mr.  Bernard 
had  formerly  written  home  letters  most  injurious 
to  the  province;  and  in  1770  there  "was  abundant 
reason  to  be  jealous,"  as  Samuel  Adams,  writing 
on  behalf  of  the  Town  of  Boston,  assured  Benjamin 
Franklin,  "that  the  most  mischievous  and  viru- 
lent accounts  have  been  lately  sent  to  Adminis- 
tration  from   Castle  William,"   no  doubt   from 
the  Commissioners  of  the  Customs.     Conveying 
malicious   and  unfounded  misrepresentations  of 
America   under   the  seal  of  official    correspond- 
ence had  indeed  long  been  a  favorite  means  of 
mending  the  fortunes  of  those   decayed  gentle- 
men  and   bankrupt   politicians   whose  ambition 


1:' 


■/ 


V 


I 


:^' 


I) 


192      THE  EVE  OP  THE  PEVOLUTION 

it  was  to  rise  in  oflSce  by  playing  the  sycophant 
to  some  great  man  in  Enghind.  Mr.  Bernard  had 
"played  this  game,"  and  had  been  found  out  at 
it,  as  every  one  knew.  But  Mr.  Bernard  was  no 
American;  and  it  was  scarcely  to  be  imagined  tha* 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  who  boasted  "that  his  Ancestors 
were  of  the  first  Rank  and  figure  in  the  Country, 
who  .  .  .  had  all  the  Honors  lavished  upon  him 
which  his  Fellow-Citizens  had  it  in  their  power  to 
bestow,  who  professed  the  strongest  attachment 
to  his  native  Country  and  the  most  tender  feelings 
for  its  Rights,  .  .  .  should  be  so  lost  to  all  sense 
of  Gratitude  and  public  Love  as  to  aid  the  Designs 
of  despotick  power  for  the  sake  of  rising  a  single 
step  higher." 

This  was  indeed  scarcely  to  be  imagined,  yet 
Samuel  Adams  imagined  it  perfectly.  Before 
there  was  any  material  evidence  of  the  fact,  he 
was  able,  by  reasonable  inference,  to  erect  well- 
grounded  suspicions  into  a  kind  of  working 
hypothesis.  Mr.  Hutchinson,  Governor  of  the 
Province,  was  an  Enemy  of  Liberty  with  many 
English  friends;  he  would  be  required  by  official 
duty  and  led  by  personal  inclination  to  maintain 
a  regular  correspondence  with  high  officials  in 
England;  from  which  the  conclusion  was  that 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       193 

Thomas  Hutchinson,  professed  friend  of  America, 
was  a  traitor,  in  secret  alienating  the  affections  of 
the  King  from  his  loyal  subjects.  Samuel  Adams 
knew  this  well ;  and  now,  after  all  these  years,  the 
material  evidence  necessary  to  convince  men  of 
little  faith  was  at  hand.  Under  circumstances 
that  might  be  regarded  as  providential,  Thomas 
Hutchinson  was  at  last  unmasked. 

The  pre!  ie  to  this  dramatic  performance  was 
pronounced  .a  the  Massachusetts  Assembly,  one 
day  in  June,  1773,  by  Mr.  John  Hancock,  who 
darkly  declared  that  within  eight  and  forty  hours 
a  discovery  of  great  pith  and  moment  would  be 
made  to  the  House.  On  the  next  day  but  one, 
Samuel  Adams  arose  and  desired  the  galleries 
cleared,  as  there  were  matters  to  lay  before  the 
members  which  the  members  only  had  a  right  to 
know  of.  When  the  galleries  were  cleared  he 
informed  the  House  that  certain  letters,  written 
by  high  officials  in  the  province  and  extremely 
hostile  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  America,  had 
been  procured  in  England  and  transmitted  to  a 
gentleman  who  had  in  turn  placed  them  in  his, 
Mr.  Adams's,  ha^^ds,  but  with  the  strictest  injunc- 
tion that  they  be  returned  without  being  copied  or 
printed.     Mr.  Adams  had  given  his  pledge  to  this 


I 

It. 


13 


m 


u. 


]p-'l 


i ''  I 


104      THE  EVE  OF  TTE  REVOLUTION 

effect;  and,  if  the  House  would  receive  them  on 
these  terms,  he  would  be  glad  to  read  the  letters, 
no  restriction  having  been  placed  on  their  being 
read.  They  were  read  accordingly;  and  a  commit- 
tee having  been  appointed  to  make  recommenda- 
tions, it  was  at  length  resolved  by  the  House 
of  Assembly  that  certain  letters  presented  to  it 
by  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  tended  and  w^re  mani- 
festly designed  to  undermine  the  Constitution  and 
establish  a  despotic  power  in  the  province.  The 
proceedings  of  the  House  being  spread  abroad,  it 
soon  became  everywhere  known  that  only  the 
pledged  word  of  the  House  stood  in  the  way  of 
revelations  highly  damaging  to  the  public  charac- 
ter of  Governor  Hutchinson. 

This  outcome  of  the  matter,  however  gratifying 
to  Samuel  Adams,  did  not  satisfy  Governoi' 
Hutchinson.  After  there  had  been  "buzzed 
about  for  three  or  four  months  a  story  of  some- 
thing that  would  amaze  everybody,"  and  these 
dark  rumors  being  "spread  through  all  the  towns 
in  the  province  and  everybody's  expectations 
.  .  .  raised,"  it  was  exasperating  to  his  prag- 
matic nature  to  have  nothing  more  definite  tran- 
spire than  that  the  something  which  would  amaze 
everybody  would  indeed  amaze  everybody  if  only 


•.,1 


IM 


'  'k 


FRANCIS  HOPKiSHO^f 
Paiatinc  lijr  SolMTt  Edge  Flag. 


/OffiV  UASCOCK  . 


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\ 


'    ♦ 


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i  i'* 


u\ 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       195 

it  could  be  made  known.  It  should  at  least  be 
made  known  to  the  person  most  concerned.  The 
Governor  therefore  requested  the  Assembly  to 
furnish  him  copies  of  the  letters  which  were 
attributed  to  him  and  declared  by  the  House  to 
be  destructive  of  the  Constitution.  In  reply,  the 
House  sent  certr  in  dates  only.  The  House  was 
of  opinion  tha  .lie  Governor  could  easily  make 
authentic  copies  of  whatever  letters  he  had  written 
at  these  dates,  if  he  had  written  any;  and  such 
copies,  being  furnished  to  the  Assembly,  might  be 
published,  and  the  whole  matter  thus  cleared  up 
without  violating  the  pledged  word  of  anyone. 

With  this  request  the  Governor  refused  to  com- 
ply, on  the  ground  that  it  would  be  improper  to 
reveal  his  private  correspondence  and  contrary  to 
instructions  to  reveal  that  of  a  public  nature.  He 
would  say,  however,  that  he  had  written  letters 
on  the  days  mentioned,  but  in  these  letters  there 
was  no  statement  of  fact  or  expression  of  opinion 
not  already  well  known.  What  his  opinions  were 
the  Assembly  and  the  world  might  very  well 
gather  from  his  published  speeches  and  his  His- 
tory of  Massachusetts  Bay.  It  could  scarcely  be 
maintained  that  he  had  ever  lacked  frankness  in 
the   expression   of   his   opinions;   and    while   his 


1^1 


196      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

opinions  might  be  thought  destructive  of  the 
Constitution,  it  was  rather  late  to  be  amazed  at 
them.  In  any  case,  the  Assembly  was  assured  by 
the  Governor  that  his  letters  neither  tended  "nor 
were  designed  to  subvert,  but  rather  to  preserve 
entire  the  constitution  of  government"  as  estab- 
lished by  the  charter  of  the  province. 

A  great  many  people  besides  the  Governor  de- 
sired to  see  letters  the  substance  of  which  could  be 
so  differently  understood.  Samuel  Adams  prob- 
ably preferred  not  to  be  forced  to  print  them; 
knowing  their  contents,  he  may  have  thought  that 
here  was  a  case  of  those  "dangers  which,  being 
known,  lose  half  their  power  for  evil";  besides, 
having  pledged  his  word,  L  vished  to  keep  it. 
Yet  the  pressure  of  publi  inion,  becoming 
every  day  greater,  was  dif  '"  to  resist,  par- 
ticularly by  men  who  were  fai^  believers  in  the 
wisdom  of  the  people.  Moreover,  it  presently 
appeared  that  there  was  no  longer  any  point  in 
refusing  to  publish  the  letters,  inasmuch  as  Mr. 
Hancock  assured  the  House  that  men  on  the 
street  were,  in  some  way  not  known,  possessed 
of  copies,  some  of  which  had  been  placed  in  his 
hands.  Mr.  Hancock's  copies  being  found  on 
comparison  to  be  accurate  rescripts  of  the  letters 


A  UTTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       197 


which  had  been  read  in  the  House,  a  committee 
was  accordingly  appointed  to  consider  how  the 
House  might  come  into  honorable  possession  of 
the  originals;  from  which  committee  Mr.  Hawley 
soon  reported  that  Samuel  Adams  had  informed 
them  that  the  gentleman  from  whom  he  had  re- 
ceived the  letters  now  consented  to  their  being 
copied,  seeing  that  they  had  already  been  copied, 
and  printed,  seeing  that  they  were  already  widely 
circulated;  whereupon  the  House,  considering  it- 
self in  honorable  possession,  ordered  the  letters  all 
published. 

Nevertheless  it  was  thought  expedient,  before 
issuing  the  letters,  to  print  and  circulate  such  a 
series  of  "Resolves"  as  might  i>/epare  the  public 
mind  for  what  was  to  come  later.  This  was  ac- 
cordingly done.  The  "  Resolves, "  bearing  date  of 
June  16, 1773,  indicated  clearly  and  at  length  the 
precise  significance  of  the  letters;  declared  it  to  be 
the  humble  opinion  of  the  House  that  it  was  not 
to  the  interest  of  the  Crown  to  continue  in  high 
places  persons  "who  are  known  to  have,  with 
great  industry,  though  secretly,  endeavored  to 
undermine,  alter,  and  overthrow  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  province";  and  concluded  by  praying 
"that  his  Majesty  would  be  pleased  to  remove 


i  i 


i 


111 


[I 


u^ 


l  h 


198       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

.  .  .  forever  from  the  government  thereof"  the 
Honorable  Andrew  Oliver  and  his  Excellency 
Thomas  Hutchinson. 

His  Majesty  did  not  remove  Mr.  Hutchinson; 
but  the  Governor's  usefulness,  from  every  point 
of  view,  was  at  an  end.  When  the  notorious  letters 
were  finally  printed,  it  appeared  that  there  were 
seventeen  in  all,  of  which  six  were  written  by  Mr. 
Hutchinson  in  the  years  1768  and  1769.  These 
latter  documents  did  not  in  fact  add  anything  to 
the  world's  stock  of  knowledge;  but  they  had  been 
so  heralded,  ushered  in  with  so  much  portentous 
explication  that  they  scarcely  needed  to  be  read  to 
be  understood.  "Had  they  been  Chevy  Chase," 
the  Governor  said,  the  people  would  have  believed 
them  "full  of  evil  and  treason. "  It  was  indeed  the 
perfect  fruit  of  Samuel  Adams's  labors  that  the 
significance  of  Mr.  Hutchinson's  letters  had  in 
some  manner  become  independent  of  their  con- 
tents. So  awake  were  the  people  to  the  danger 
of  being  deceived,  that  whatever  the  Governor 
now  said  or  ever  had  written  was  taken  to  be  but 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evide 
of  things  not  seen. 

Meanwhile,  the  attention  of  all  patriots  was 
diverted  from  the  letters  to  a  far  more  serious 


!Mf^ 


A  LITTLE  DISCREET  CONDUCT       199 

matter;  and  when,  on  December  16,  1773,  a  cargo 
of  the  East  India  Company's  tea,  consigned  among 
others  to  Thomas  and  Elisha  ^lutchinson,  was 
thrown  into  Boston  harbor,  ♦he  great  crisis,  which 
Samuel  Adams  had  done  so  much  to  make  in- 
evitable by  virtue  of  thinking  it  so,  was  at  last  a 
reality.  It  was  a  limitation  of  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son's excellent  administrative  mind  that  he  was 
wholly  unaware  of  this  crisis.  In  February  of  the 
next  year,  finding  that  "a  little  discreet  conduct," 
or  indeed  any  conduct  on  his  part,  was  altogether 
without  good  eflFect,  the  Governor  announced  that 
he  had  "obtained  leave  from  the  King  to  go  to  Eng- 
land. "  On  the  1st  of  June,  driving  from  his  home 
to  the  foot  of  Dorchester  Heights,  he  embarked 
on  the  irlinerva  and  arrived  in  London  one  month 
later.  It  was  his  expectation  that  after  a  brief 
absence,  when  General  Gage  by  a  show  of  military 
force  should  have  brought  the  province  to  a  reason- 
able frame  of  mind,  he  would  return  and  assume 
again  the  responsibilities  of  his  oflSce.  He  never 
returned,  but  died  in  England  on  June  3,  1780,  an 
unhappy  and  a  homesick  exile  from  the  country 
which  he  loved. 


I 


t  • 


i 


s.  ■■ 


CHAPTER  VI 


TESTING  TUB  ISSUE 


h 


U\ 


The  die  is  now  cast;  the  colonies  must  either  submit  or  triumph. 

George  III. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  created 
equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalien- 
aole  Rights,  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  Happiness. 

Thomas  Jefferion. 

Two  months  and  ten  days  after  Mr.  Hutchinson 
embarked  for  England,  John  Adams,  the  Hon. 
Thomas  Gushing,  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  and  Robert 
Treat  Paine  set  out  "from  Boston,  from  Mr. 
Cushing's  house,  and  rode  to  Coolidge's,  where 
they  dined  .  .  .  with  a  large  company  of  gentle- 
men, who  went  out  and  prepared  an  entertainment 
for  them  at  that  place.  A  most  kindly  and  affec- 
tionate meeting  we  had,  and  about  four  in  the 
afternoon  we  took  leave  of  them,  amidst  the 
kindest  wishes  and  fervent  prayers  of  every  man 
in  the  company  for  our  health  and  success.    The 

200 


I   \ 


h   411 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  201 

scene  was  truly  affecting,  beyond  all  description 
affecting. "  The  four  men  who  in  this  manner  left 
Boston  on  the  10th  of  August,  1774,  were  bound 
for  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  first  Continental 
Congress.  F.ven  Samuel  Adams,  in  excellent  spir- 
its, a  little  resplendent  and  doubtless  u  little  un- 
comfortable in  his  new  suit  and  new  silk  hose, 
could  scarcely  have  known  that  they  were  about  to 
share  in  one  of  the  decisive  events  in  the  history 
of  the  modern  world. 

The  calling  of  the  Continental  Congress  had 
followed  hard  upon  those  recent  measures  of  the 
British  Government  which   no   reasonable   man 
could  doubt  were  designed  to  reduce  the  colonies 
to  a  state  of  slavery.    In  May,  1773,  the  East 
India  Company,  whose  privileges  in  India  had  just 
been  greatly  restricted,  was  given  permission  to 
export  tea  from  its  English  warehouses  directly 
to  America,  free  of  all  English  customs  and  excise 
duties.      The  threepenny  duty  in  America   was 
indeed  retained;  but  this  small  tax  would  not 
prevent  the   Company  from  selling  its  teas  in 
America  at  a  lower  price  than  other  importers, 
either  smugglers  or  leg-'timate  traders,  could  afford. 
It  was  true  the  Americans  were  opposed  to  the 
threepenny  tax,  and  they  had  bound  themselves 


■N 


fi 


,  I 


t 


S02      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

not  to  import  any  dutied  tea;  yet  neither  tlic 
opposition  to  the  tax  nor  the  non-importation 
agreements  entered  into  had  prevented  American 
merchants  from  importing,  during  the  last  three 
years,  about  580,831  pounds  of  English  tea,  upon 
which  the  duty  had  been  paid  without  occasioning 
much  comment. 

With  these  facts  in  mind,  hard-headed  Ameri- 
can merchants,  to  whom  the  Company  applied  for 
information  about  the  state  of  the  tea  trade  in 
the  colonies,  assured  the  directors  that  the  Ameri- 
cans drank  a  great  deal  of  tea,  which  hitherto  had 
been  largely  smuggled  from  Holland;  and  that, 
although  they  were  in  principle  much  opposed  to 
the  tax,  "mankind  in  general  are  bound  by  in- 
terest," and  "the  Company  can  afford  their  teas 
cheaper  than  the  Americans  can  smuggle  them  from 
foreigners,  which  puts  the  success  of  the  design 
beyond  a  doubt. " 

The  hard-headed  merchants  were  doubtless 
much  surprised  at  the  universal  outcry  which  was 
raised  when  it  became  known  that  the  East  India 
Company  was  preparing  to  import  its  teas  into 
the  colonies;  and  yet  the  strenuous  opposition 
everywhere  exhibited  rather  confirmed  than  re- 
futed the  philosophical  reflection  that  "mankind 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE 


203 


in  gcnoral  are  bound  by  interest."  Neither  the 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  merchants  who 
smuggled  lea  from  Holland,  nor  the  Boston  and 
Charleston  merchants  who  imported  dutied  tea 
from  England,  could  see  any  advantage  to  them 
in  having  this  profitable  l)usiness  taken  over  by 
the  East  India  Company.  Mr.  Hancock,  for 
examp'c,  was  one  of  the  Boston  merchants  who 
imported  a  good  deal  of  dutied  tea  from  England, 
a  fact  which  was  better  known  then  than  it  has 
been  since;  and  at  Philadelphia  John  Adams  was 
questioned  rather  closely  about  Mr.  Hancock's 
violation  of  the  non-importation  agreement,  in 
reply  to  which  he  could  only  say:  "Mr.  Hancock, 
I  believe,  is  justifiable,  but  I  am  not  certain 
whether  he  is  strictly  so. "  Justifiable  or  not,  Mr. 
Hancock  would  not  wish  to  see  the  entire  tea 
trade  of  America  iu  the  hands  of  the  East  India 
Company. 

And  indeed  to  whose  interest  would  it  be  to 
have  an  English  company  granted  a  monopoly  of 
a  thriving  branch  of  American  trade.'  To  those, 
doubtless,  who  were  the  consignees  of  the  Com- 
pany, such  as  the  sons  of  Thomas  Hutchinson, 
or  Mr.  Abram  Lott  of  New  York.  Certainly  no 
private  merchant  "who  is  acquainted  with  the 


■t*J 


X 


I 


M 


I- 


It 


m 


fl04      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

operation  of  a  monopoly  .  .  .  will  send  out  or 
order  tea  to  Anu'riea  when  those  who  have  it  at 
first  hand  send  to  ll»e  same  market."  And  there- 
fore, since  the  Company  have  the  whole  smply, 
America  will  "ultimately  he  at  their  mercy  to 
extort  what  price  they  please  for  their  tea.  And 
when  they  find  their  success  in  this  article,  they 
will  obtain  liberty  to  export  their  spices,  silks, 
etc."  This  was  the  light  in  which  the  matter 
appeared  to  the  New  York  Committee  of  Corre- 
spondence. 

John  Dickinson  saw  the  matter  in  the  same  light, 
a  light  which  his  superior  abilities  enabled  him  to 
portray  in  more  lurid  colors.  The  conduct  of  the 
East  India  Company  in  Asia,  he  said, 

has  given  ample  proof  how  little  they  regard  the  laws 
of  nations,  the  rights,  liberties,  or  lives  of  men.  They 
have  levied  war,  excited  rebellions,  dethroned  princes, 
and  sacrificed  millions  for  the  sake  of  gain.  The  reve- 
nues of  mighty  kingdoms  have  centered  in  their 
coffers.  And  these  not  being  Sufis'-  it  to  glut  their 
avarice,  they  have,  by  the  most  u'  .r  iUeled  barbari- 
ties, extortions,  and  monopolies,  st  >ped  the  miserable 
inhabitants  of  their  property  and  reduced  whole  prov- 
inces to  indigence  and  ruin  .  .  .  Thus  having  drained 
the  sources  of  that  immense  wealth  .  .  .  they  now.  it 
seems,  cast  their  eyes  on  America,  a  new  theater, 
whereon  f  o  exercise  their  talents  of  rapine,  oppression, 


II     ^' 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  205 

and  cruelty.  The  monopoly  of  tea,  is,  I  dare  say,  but 
a  small  part  of  th"  plan  they  have  formi-d  to  strip  us 
of  our  property.  But  thank  G<h1  we  are  not  Soa  Poys. 
nor  Marattas,  hut  British  subjetts.  who  are  lx>m  to 
liberty,  who  know  its  worth,  and  who  prize  it  high. 

For  all  of  these  reasons,  therefore  —  because 
they  were  in  principle  opposed  to  taxation  without 
consent,  and  by  interest  opposed  to  an  English 
company  monopolizing  the  tea  trade,  and  perhaps 
because  they  desired  to  give  a  signal  demonstra- 
tion of  the  fact  that  they  were  neither  Sea  Poys 
nor  Marattas  —  Americans  were  willing  to  resort 
to  the  use  of  force  in  order  to  maintain  their  own 
rights  by  depriving  the  East  India  Company  of  its 
privileges. 

When  Capt.  Curling's  ship  arrived  in  Charles- 
ton, the  people  in  that  town,  assembled  to  deal 
with  the  grave  crisis,  were  somewhat  uncertain 
what  to  do  with  the  Company's  tea.  On  the 
very  ship  which  brought  the  Company's  tea,  there 
were  some  chests  consigned  to  private  merchants; 
and  certain  enthusiastic  patriots  attending  the 
meeting  of  citizens  affirmed  that  the  importation 
of  dutied  tea  by  private  merchants  contrary  to 
the  non-importation  agreement  was  no  less  de- 
structive to  liberty  than  the  importation  of  tea 


I 

ill 
r-. 


( • 


!. 


ii 


*  1 

u 


r 


THE  e\t:  of  the  revolution 

by  tlii'  i'ast  India  Company.  "All  this,"  it  was 
said,  "evinced  a  desire  of  not  entering?  hastily 
into  iueiisures."  In  the  end,  the  Company's 
lea  w.«>  1  Ized  by  the  Collector  and  stored  in 
the  •  11  '  under  the  Exchange.  At  N«-w  York 
and  '  11  Iphia,  the  Company's  tea  ships  w,re 
rec  ;  r.  i  l<  return  to  England  without  landing; 
and  ii  \N.i^  only  at  Boston,  whcp-  Go\ernor 
Hutc.  »M  (  r,  whoi-o  sons  had  been  appointed  l)y 
the  ''     n'laii  consignees,  refused  return 

clear    .r.  that    the    tea,   some   £14,000 

wortli  of  it   u      thrown  into  the  harbor. 

Tl rowing  tlic  loa  into  the  harbor  raised  a  sharp 
sense  of  resentnunt  in  the  minds  of  Britons.    The 
common  feeling  was  that,  unless  the  British  Gov- 
ernment was  prepared  to  renounce  all  pretense  of 
governing  the  colonies,  something  must  be  done. 
There  were  a  few,  such  as  Josiah  Tucker,  who 
thought  that  the  thing  to  do  was  to  give  up  the 
colonies;  in  their  opinion,  colonies  were  in  any  case 
more  of  a  burden  than  an  advantage,  the  supposed 
advantages  of  colonies  being  bound  up  with  re- 
strictions on  trade,  and  restrictions  on  trade  being 
contrary  to  the  natural  law  by  which  commerce 
should  be  free.     But  the  natural  law  was  only 
a  recent    discovery  not   yet  widely  accepted  in 


■^ 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  407 

England;  and  it  did  not  occur  lo  tlu'  uvrragc 
Briton  that  the  colonics  should  he  jjivcn  up. 
The  colonics,  he  supposed,  were  Knglish  colonies; 
and  he  thought  the  lime  hud  conjc  to  establish 
that  fact.  He  had  heard  fhaf  the  colonies  liad 
grievances.  Ail  he  knew  was  that  the Cioverninent 
had  good-naturedly  made  concessions  for  tlu-  last 
ten  years;  and  as  for  this  new  grievance  about  lea, 
the  average  Briton  made  out  on!  v  that  the  Ameri- 
cans could  buy  their  tea  cheaper  than  he  could 
him&elf. 

Obviously  the  time  had  come  for  ( tUl  England 
to  set  the  colonies  right  by  showing  less  conces- 
sion and  more  power.  Four  reginuents,  as  (ieneral 
Gage  said,  wmild  do  the  business.  The  average 
Briton  therefore  gave  his  cordial  apj)roval  t<»  four 
"coercive  "  measures,  passed  by  overwhelming  nja- 
jorities  in  Parliament,  which  remodeled  the  Mas- 
sachusetts charter,  authorized  the  (Governor  lo 
transfer  to  courts  in  other  colonic  s  or  to  England 
any  cases  involving  a  breach  of  the  pe^ice  or  the 
conduct  of  public  officers,  provided  for  quarter- 
ing troops  on  the  inhabitants,  and  clost  d  th 
port  of  Boston  until  the  East  India  C'ompatiy 
should  have  been  compensated  for  the  loss  of  its 
tea.    In  order  to  make  these  mensuros  effective. 


If 

1, 

'I 


I. 


i 


;i 


208      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 


!, 


^B: 


General  Gage,  commander  of  the  American  forces, 
was  made  Governor  of  M assachussetts.  To  what 
extent  he  would  find  it  necessary  to  use  the  mili- 
tary depended  upon  the  Bostonians.  "The  die  is 
now  cast,"  the  King  wrote  to  Lord  North;  "the 
colonies  must  either  submit  or  triumph."  The 
King's  judgment  was  not  always  good;  but  it  must 
be  conceded  that  in  this  instance  he  had  pene- 
trated to  the  very  center  of  the  situation. 

Massachusetts,  very  naturally,  wished  not  to 
submit,  but  whether  she  could  triumph  without 
the  support  of  the  other  colonies  was  more  than 
doubtful;  and  it  was  to  obtain  this  support,  to 
devise  if  possible  a  method  of  resistance  agreeable 
to  all,  that  the  Congress  was  now  assembling  at 
Philadelphia.  The  spirit  in  which  the  colonies 
received  the  news  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  augured 
well  for  union,  for  in  every  colony  it  was  felt  that 
this  was  a  challenge  which  could  not  be  evaded 
without  giving  the  lie  to  ten  years  of  high  talk 
about  the  inalienable  rights  of  Englishmen.  As 
Charles  James  Fox  said,  "all  were  taught  to  con- 
sider the  town  of  Boston  as  sufiFering  in  the  com- 
mon cause. "  This  sentiment  John  Adams  found 
everywhere  expressed  —  found  everywhere,  as  he 
took  his  leisurely  journey  southward,  that  people 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  209 

were  "very  firm"  in  their  determination  to  sup- 
port  Massachusetts  against  the  oppression  of  the 
British  Government. 

In  respect  to  the  measures  which  should  be 
adopted  to  achieve  the  end  desired,  there  was  not 
the  same  unanimity.    Mr.  Adams,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-eight  years,  never  having  been  out  of  New 
England,  kept  his  eyes  very  wide  open  as  he 
entered  the  foreign  colonies  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania.     In  New  York  he  was  much  im- 
pressed with  the  "elegant  country  seats,"  with 
the  bountiful  hospitality,  and  the  lavish  way  of 
living.    "A  more  elegant  breakfast  I  never  saw  "  — 
this  was  at  Mr.  Scott's  house—  "rich  plate,  a  very 
large  silver  coffee-pot,  a  very  large  silver  tea-pot, 
napkins  of  the  finest  materials,  toast,  and   bread 
and  butter  in  great  :)erfection, "  and  then,  to  top 
it  off,  "a  plate  of  beautiful  peaches,  anr.ther  of 
pears,  and  another  of  plums,  and  a  musk-melon 
were   placed  upon  the  table."    Nevertheless,  in 
spite  of  the  friendliness  shown  to  him  personally, 
in  spite  of  the  sympathy  which,  abstractly  con^ 
sidered,  the  New  Yorkers  expressed  for  the  sad 
state  of  Boston,  Mr.  Adams  was  made  to  under- 
stand that  if  it  came  to  practical  measures  for  the 
support  of  Massachusetts,  many  diverse  currents 


r 


m 


SIO      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

of  opinion  and  interest  would  make  themselves 

felt. 

New  York  was  "very  firm"  in  the  cause,  cer- 
tainly, but  "Mr.  MacDougall  gave  a  caution  to 
avoid    every    expression    which    looked    like    an 
allusion  to  the  last  appeal.     He  says  there  is  a 
powerful  party  here  who  are  intimidated  by  fears 
of  a  civil  war,  and  they  have  been  induced  to 
acquiesce  by  assurances  that  there  was  no  danger, 
and  that  a  peaceful  cessation  of  commerce  would 
effect  relief.    Another  party,  he  says,  are  intimi- 
dated lest  the  leveling  spirit  of  the  New  England 
colonies  should  propagate  itself  into  New  York. 
Another   party   are   instigated   by   Episcopalian 
prejudices  against  New  England.    Another  party 
are  merchants  largely  concerned  in  navigation, 
and   therefore   afraid   of  non-importation,   non- 
consumption,    and    non-exportation    agreements. 
Another  party  are  those  who  are  looking  up  to 
Government  for  favors." 

These  interests  were  doubtless  well  enough 
represented  by  the  New  York  deputies  to  the 
Congress,  whom  Mr.  Adams  now  saw  for  the  first 
time.  Mr.  Jay,  it  was  said,  was  a  good  student  of 
the  law  and  a  hard  worker.  Mr.  Low,  "they  say, 
will  profess  attachment  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 


# 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  211 

but  his  sincerity  is  doubted."     Mr.  AIsop  was 
thought  to  be  of  good  heart,  but  unequal,  as 
Mr.  Scott  affirmed,  "to  the  trust  in  point   of 
abilities."     Mr.  Duane  — this  was  Mr.  Adams's 
own    impression  — "has   a   sly,    surveying    eye, 
.    .   .   very  sensible,  I  think,  and   very  artful." 
And  finally  there  was  Mr.  Livingston,  "a  down- 
right, straightforward  man,"  who  reminded  Mr. 
Adams  that  Massachusetts  had  once  hung  some 
Quakers,  affirmed  positively  that  civil  war  would 
follow   the   renunciation   of  allegiance   to   Brit- 
ain, and  threw  out  vague  hints  of  the  Goths  and 
Vandals. 

Confiding  these  matters  to  his  Diary  and 
keeping  his  own  opinion,  Mr.  Adams  passed  on  to 
Philadelphia.  There  the  Massachusetts  men  were 
cordially  welcomed,  twice  over,  but  straightway 
cautioned  against  two  gentlemen,  one  of  whom  was 
"Dr.  Smith,  the  Provost  of  the  College,  who  is 
looking  up  to  Government  for  an  American 
Episcopate  and  a  pair  of  lawn  sleeves"—  a  very 
soft,  polite  man.  "insinuating,  adulating,  sensible, 
learned,  insidious,  indefatigable, "  with  art  enough, 
"and  refinement  upon  art,  to  make  impressions 
even  upon  Mr.  Dickinson  and  Mr.  Reed."  In 
Pennsylvania,   as  in  every  colony,   Mr.   Adams 


% 


h 


i\ 


^i 


II  it 


itU 


if 


in 


212  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVCLUTION 
found,  there  was  a  tribe  of  people  "exactly  like 
the  tribe,  in  the  Massachusetts,  of  Hutchinsonian 
Addressers."  Some  of  this  tribe  had  managed  to 
elbow  their  way  into  the  committees  of  deputies 
to  the  Congress,  at  least  from  the  middle  colonies, 
and  probably  from  South  Carolina  as  well. 

The  "  most  spirited  and  consistent  of  any  "  of  the 
deputies  were  the  gentlemen  from  Virginia,  among 
whom  were  Mr.  Henry  and  Mr.  R.  H.  Lee,  said 
to  be  the  Demosthenes  and  the  Cicero  of  America. 
The  latter,  Mr.  Adams  liked  much,  a  "masteriy 
man"  who  was  very  strong  for  the  most  vigorous 
measures.  But  :*t  seemed  that  even  Mr.  Lee  was 
strong  for  vigorous  measures  only  because  he  was 
"absolutely  certain  that  the  same  ship  which 
carries  hence  the  resolutions  will  bring  back  the 
redress."  If  he  supposed  otherwise,  he  "should 
be  for  exceptions. " 

From  the  first  day  of  the  Congress  it  was  known 
that  the  Massachusetts  men  were  in  favor  of 
"vigorous  measures,"  vigorous  measures  being 
understood  to  mean  the  adoption  of  strict  non- 
importation, non-consumption,  and  non-exporta- 
tion agreements.  There  were  moments  when 
John  Adams  thought  even  these  measures  tame 
and  unheroic:  "When  Demosthenes  (God  forgive 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  213 

the   vanity   of   recollecting   his   example)    went 
ambassador  from  Athens  to  the  other  states  of 
Greece,  to  excite  a  confederacy  against  Phillip, 
he  did  not  go  to  propose  a  Non-Importation  or 
Non-Consumption    Agreement.  ..."      For    all 
this,  the  Massachusetts  men  kept  themselves  well 
in  the  background,  knowing  that  there  was  much 
jealousy  and  some  fear  of  New  England  leadership 
and  well  aware  that  the  recent  experience  with 
non-importation   agreements  had  greatly  dimin- 
ished,  in  the  mercantile  colonies  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  and  South  Carolina,  the  enthusiasm' 
for  such  experiments. 

The  trouble  with  non-importation  agreements, 
as  Major  Hawley  had  told  John  Adams,  was  that 
"they  will  not  be  faithfully  observed;  that  the 
Congress  have  no  power  to  enforce  obedience  to 
their  laws;  that  they  will  be  like  a  legislative  with- 
out an  executive. "     Did  Congress  have,  or  could 
it  assume,  authority  to  compel  men  to  observe  its 
resolutions,  to  compel  them  to  observe,  for  exam- 
ple, a  non-importation  agreement?     This  was  a 
delicate  question  upon  which  opinion  was  divided. 
"We  have  no  legal  authority, "  said  Mr.  Rutledge, 
"and  obedience  to  our  determinations  will  only 
follow  the  reasonableness,  the  apparent  utility,  and 


1^ 


H     • 


1 


m 


mv 


ril 


^  -f 


814      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
necessity  of  the  measures  we  adopt.     We  have  no 
coercive  or  legislative  authority. "    If  this  was  so, 
the  non-intercourse  policy  would  doubtless  prove 
a  broken  reed.     Massachusetts  men  were  likely 
to  be  of  another  opinion,  were  likely  to  agree  with 
Patrick  Henry,  who  affirmed  that  "Government  is 
dissolved.    Fleets  and  armies  and  the  present  state 
of  things  show  that  government  is  dissolved.    We 
are  in  a  state  of  nature.  Sir!"    If  they  were  indeed 
in  a  state  of  nature,  it  was  perhaps  high  time  that 
Congress  should  assume  the  powers  of  a  govern- 
ment, in  which  case  it  might  be  possible  to  adopt 
and  to  enforce  non-intercourse  measures.    In  this 
gingerly  way  did  the  deputies  lift  the  curtain  and 
peer  down  the  road  to  revolution. 

The  deputies,  like  true  Britons,  contrived  to 
avoid  the  highly  theoretical  question  of  authority, 
and   began   straightway   to   concern   themselves 
with  the  practical  question  of  whether  the  Con- 
gress, with  or  without  authority,  should  recom- 
mend   the    adoption    of    strict    non-intercourse 
agreements.     Upon   this  question,   as  the  chief 
issue,  the  deputies  were  divided  into  nearly  equal 
groups.    Mr.  Galloway,  Mr.  Duane,  and  Mr.  Rut- 
ledge  were  perhaps  the  leaders  of  those,  prob- 
ably a  majority  at  first,  who  were  opposed  to 


i 


*a, 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  !ei5 

such  vigorous  measures,  fearing  that  they  were 
intended  as  a  cloak  to  cover  the  essentially  revo- 
lutionary designs  of  the  shrewd  New  Englanders. 
"We  have  too  much  reason  to  suspect  that  in- 
dependence is  aimed  at,"  Mr.  Low  warned  the 
Congress;  and  Mr.  Galloway  could  see  that  while 
the  Massachusetts  men  were  in  "behavior  very 
modest,  yet  they  are  not  so  much  so  as  not  to 
throw  out  hints,  which  like  straws  and  feathers 
show  from  which  point  in  the  compass  the  wind 
comes. "  In  the  early  days  of  the  Congress,  if  we 
are  to  believe  Mr.  Hutchinson,  this  cold  north 
wind  was  so  much  disliked  that  the  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  deputies,  "and  others,"  carried  a  vote 
against  the  adoption  of  non-intercourse  agree- 
ments, "agreed  to  present  a  petition  to  the  King," 
and  "expected  to  break  up,  when  letters  arrived 
from  Dr.  Franklin  which  put  an  end  to  the 
petition." 

The  Journals  of  the  Congress  do  not  record  any 
vote  of  this  kind;  but  a  number  of  things  are 
known  to  have  occurred  in  the  Congress  which 
the  Journals  do  not  record.  On  September  17,  the 
famous  "Suffolk  Resolves"  were  laid  before  the 
deputies  for  their  approval.  The  resolutions  had 
been  adopted  by  a  county  convention  in  Massa- 


i\ 


k  V 


I 


i 


ill 


i'ii  • 


/     ' 


■I 


816      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

chuseits,  and  in  substance  they  recommended  to 
the  people  of  Massachusetts  to  form  a  govern- 
ment independent  of  that  of  which  General  Gage 
was  the  Governor,  urged  them  meanwhile  to  arm 
themselves  in  their  own  defense,  and  assured  them 
that  "no  obedience  is  due  from  this  province  to 
either  or  any  part"  of  the  Coercive  Acts.     These 
were  indeed  "vigorous  measures";  and  when  the 
resolutions  came  before  Congress,  "long  and  warm 
debates  ensued  between  the  parties,"  Mr.  Gallo- 
way afterwards  remembered;  and  he  says  that 
when  the  vote  to  approve  them  was  finally  carried, 
"two  of  the  dissenting  members  presumed  to  offer 
their  protest  to  it  in  writing  which  was  negatived," 
and  when  they  then  insisted  that  the  "tender  of 
the  protest  and  the  negative  should  be  entered  on 
the  minutes,  this  was  also  rejected. " 

Later  in  the  month,  September  28,  Mr.  Galloway 
introduced  his  famous  plan  for  a  "  British-American 
Parliament "  as  a  method  for  permanent  reconcilia- 
tion. The  motion  to  enter  the  plan  on  the  minutes 
and  to  refer  it  for  further  consideration  gave  rise 
to  "long  and  warm  debates,"  the  motion  being 
carried  by  a  majority  of  one  colony;  but  subse- 
quently, probably  on  October  21,  it  was  voted 
to  expunge  the  plan,  together  with  all  resolutions 


If  m 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  m 

referring  to  it,  from  the  minutes.  Nothing,  as 
Benjamin  Franklin  wrote  from  England,  could  so 
encourage  the  British  Government  to  persist  in 
its  oppressive  policy  as  the  knowledge  that  dis- 
sensions existed  in  the  Congress;  and  since  these 
dissensions  did  unfortunately  exist,  there  was  a 
widespread  feeling  that  it  would  be  the  part  of 
wisdom  to  conceal  them  as  much  as  possible. 

No  doubt   a  majority  of  the  depities,   when 
they   first   read   the   Suffolk   Resoluions,   were 
amazed  that  the  rash  New  Englanders  should 
venture  to  pledge  themselves  so  frankly  to  re- 
bellion.   Certainly  no  one  who  thought  himself  a 
loyjil  subject  of  King  George  could  even  con- 
template rebellion;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
leave  Massachusetts  in  the  lurch  after  so  much 
talk  of  union  and  the  maintenance  of  American 
rights  would  make  loyal  Americans  look  a  little 
ridiculous.     That  would  be  to  show  themselves 
lambs  as  soon  as  Britons  had  shown  themselves 
lions,  which  was  precisely  what  their  enemies  in 
England  boasted  they  would  do.     Confronted  by 
this   difficult   dilemma,    moderate    men    without 
decided  opinions  began  to  fix  their  attention  less 
upon  the  exact  nature  of  the  measures  they  were 
asked  to  support,  and  more  upon  the  probable 


II 

.a 


'i  ' 


h  Wj 


S18       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTTON 
effect  of  such  measures  upon  the  Br. u  -.  Gov- 
ernment.    It  might  be  true,  and  all  reports  from 
England  seemed  to  point  that  way,  that  the  Brit- 
ish Government  was  only  brandishing  the  sword 
in  terrorem,  to  see  whether  the  Americans  would 
not  run  at  once  to  cover;  in  which  case  it  would  be 
wiser  for  all  loyal  subjects  to  pledge  themselves 
even  to  rebellion,  the  prospect  being  so  very  good 
that  Britain  would  quickly  sheathe  its  sword  and 
present  instead  the  olive  branch,  saying,  "This  is 
what  I  intended  to  offer. "    Therefore,  rather  than 
leave  Massachusetts  in  the  lurch  and  so  give  the 
lie  to  the  boasted  unity  of  the  colonies,  many 
moderate  and  loyal  subjects  voted  to  approve  the 
Suffolk  Resolutions,  which  they  thought  very  rash 
and  ill-advised  measures. 

Whatever  differences  stil)  prevailed,  if  indeed 
practical  men  could  hold  oul  after  the  accom- 
plished fact,  might  be  bridged  and  compromised 
by  adopting  those  petitions  and  addresses  which 
the  timid  thought  sufficient  and  at  the  same  time 
by  subscribing  to  and  "recommending"  those  non- 
intercourse  agreements  which  the  bolder  sort 
thought  essential. 

This  compromise  was  in  fact  effected.     The 
Congress  unanimously  adopted  the  moderate  ad- 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  919 

dresses  which  Ix>rd  Chatham  afterwards  praised 
for  their  masterly  exposition  of  true  constitutional 
principles;  but  it  likewise  adopted,   also   unani- 
mously, a  series  of  resolutions  known  as  the  As- 
sociation, to  which  the  deputies  subscribed  their 
names.     By  signing  the  Association,  the  deputies 
bound  themselves,  and  recommended  the  people  in 
all  the  colonies  to  bind  themselves,  not  to  import, 
after  December  1,  1774,  any  commodities  from 
Great   Britain  or  Ireland,  or  molasses,  syrups, 
sugars,  and  coffee  from  the  British  plantations, 
or  East  India  Company  tea  from   any  place,  or 
wines  from  Madeira,  or  foreign  indigo;  not  to  con- 
sume, after  March  1, 1775,  any  of  these  commodi- 
ties; and  not  to  export,  after  September  10,  1775, 
any  commodities  whatever  to  Great  Britain,  Ire- 
land, or  the  West  Indies,  "except  rice  to  Europe." 
It  was  further  recommended  that  a  committee  be 
formed  in  each  city,  town,  and  county,  whose  busi- 
ness it  should  be  to  observe  the  conduct  of  all  per- 
sons, those  who  refused  to  sign  the  Association  as 
well  as  those  who  signed  it,  and  to  publish  the 
names  of  all  persons  who  did   not  observe  the 
agreements  there  entered  into,  "to  the  end  that 
all  such  foes  of  the  rights  of  British-America  may 
be  publicly  known  and  universally  condemned  as 


I. 


•i 


^- 


990  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
the  enemies  of  American  liberty";  and  it  waj« 
likewise  recommended  that  the  committees  should 
inspect  the  customs  entries  frequently,  that  they 
should  seize  all  goods  imported  contrary  to  the  re- 
commendation of  the  Association  and  reship  them, 
or,  if  the  owner  preferred,  sell  them  at  public 
auction,  the  owner  to  be  recompensed  for  the  first 
costs,  the  profits,  if  any,  to  be  devoted  to  relieving 
the  people  of  Boston. 

Having  thus  adopted  a  Petition  to  the  King,  a 
Memorial  to  the  InhabitanU  of  the  British  Colo- 
nies, and  an  Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, and  having  recommended  a  certain  line  of 
conduct  to  be  followed  by  all  loyal  Americans, 
the  first  Continental  Congress  adjourned.  It  had 
assumed  no  "coercive  or  legislative  authority"; 
obedience  to  its  determinations  would  doubtless 
depend,  as  Mr.  Rutledge  had  said,  upon  "the  rea- 
sonableness, the  apparent  utility  and  necessity" 
of  its  recommendations. 

"There  can  be  no  doubt,"  the  Earl  of  Dart- 
mouth is  reported  to  have  said,  "that  every  one 
who  had  signed  the  Association  was  guilty  of  trea- 
son." The  Earl  of  Dartmouth  was  not  counted 
one  of  the  enemies  of  America;  and  if  this  was 
his  opinion  of  the  action  of  the  first  Continental 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  Ul 

Congress,  Lord  North's  supporters  in  Parliament, 
u  great  majority  since  the  recent  elections,  wer«! 
not  likely  to  take  a  more  favorable  view  of  it. 
Nevertheless,  when  th.   American  question  came 
up    for    consideration    in    the    winter   of    1775, 
"conciliation"  was  a  word  frequently  heard  on 
all  sides,  and  even  corrupt  ministers  were  under- 
stood to  be  dallying  with  schemes  of  accommoda- 
tion.   In  January  and  February  great  men  were 
sending  agents,  and  even  coming  themselves,  to 
Dr.  Fniiklin  to  learn  what  in  his  opinion  the 
colonies  would  be  satisf-.d  with.    Lord  Chatham, 
us  might  be  guessed,  wn.s  m.  ditaling  n  plan.    On 
the  29th  of  January,  he  eaiiie  to  Craven  Street 
and  showed  it  to  Franklin,  wh,.  ,nude  notes  upon 
it,  and  later  went  out  to  lluys,  two  hours'  ride 
from  London,  where  he  remained  for  f.ur  hours 
listening  to  the  easy  flow  of  the  Gri'at  Commoner's 
eloquence  without  being  able  to  get  any  of  his 
own  ideas  presented. 

Fortified  by  the  presence  if  not  by  the  advice 
of  Franklin,  Lord  Chatham  laid  his  plan  before 
Parliament  on  the  1st  of  February.  He  would 
have  an  explicit  declaration  of  the  dependence  of 
the  colonies  on  the  Crown  and  Parliament  in  all 
matters  of  trade  and  an  equally  explicit  declara- 


I. 


k 


222      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
tion  that  no  tax  should  be  imposed  upon  the  colo- 
nies without  their  consent;  and  when  the  Congress 
at  Philadelphia  should  have  acknowledged  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Crown  and  Parliament  and  should 
have  made  a  free  and  perpetual  grant  of  revenue, 
then  he  would  have  all  the  obnoxious  acts  passed 
since  1764,  and  especially  the  Coercive  Acts,  to- 
tally repealed.     Lord  Sandwich,  in  a  warm  speech, 
loved  to  reject  these  proposals  at  once;  and  when 
the  vote  was  taken  it  was  found  that  61  noble 
lords  were  in  favor  of  rejecting  them  at  once, 
while  only  31  were  opposed  to  so  doing. 

Lord  North  was  perhaps  less  opposed  to  recon- 
ciliation than  other  noble  lords  were.    A  few  days 
later  Franklin  was  approached  by  Admiral  Howe, 
who  was  understood  to  know  the  First  Minister's 
mind,  to  learn  whether  he  might  not  suggest  some- 
thing for  the  Government  to  go  upon.    The  vener- 
able Friend  of  the  Human  Race  was  willing  enough 
to  set  down  on  paper  some  "Hints"  which  Admiral 
Howe  might  think  advisable  to  show  to  ministers. 
It  happened,  however,  that  the  "Hints"  went  far 
beyond  anything  the  Government  had  in  mind. 
Ministers  would  perhaps  be  willing  to  repeal  the 
Tea  Act  and  the  Boston  Port  Bill;  but  they  felt 
strongly  that  the  act  regulating  the  Massachusetts 


1 
i 


1 
I 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  223 

charter  must  stand  as  "an  example  of  the  power  of 
Parliament."  Frankh'n,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
certain  that  "while  Parliament  claims  the  right 
of  altering  American  constitutions  at  pleasure, 
there  can  be  no  agreement."  Since  the  parties 
were  so  far  apart,  it  seemed  useless  to  continue 
the  informal  negotiation,  and  on  February  20, 
Lord  North  laid  before  Parliament  his  own  plan 
for  effecting  an  accommodation. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  it  was  not  his  own  plan;  for 
Lord  North,  much  inclined  to  regard    himself  as 
the  King's  minister,  was  likely  to  subordinate  his 
wishes  to  those  of  his  master.    King  George  III,  at 
all  events,  had  his  own  ideas  on  conciliation.     "I 
am  a  friend  to  holding  out  the  olive  branch,"  he 
wrote  in  February,  "yet  I  believe  that,  when  vig- 
orous  measures  appear  to  be  the  only  means,  the 
colonies  will  submit."    Knowing  the  King's  ideas, 
as  well  as  those  of  Dr.  Franklin,  Lord  North  ac- 
cordingly introduced  into  Parliament  the  Resolu- 
tion on  Conciliation,  which  provided  that  when  any 
colony  should  make  provision  "for  contributing 
their  proportion  to  the  common  defense,  ...  and 
for  the  support  of  the  civil  government,  and  the 
administration  of  justice  in  such  province, 
it  will  be  proper,  .  .  .  for  so  long  as  such  provision 


I     1 

1:; 


■1 


'* 


224  THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 
shall  be  made,  .  .  .  to  forbear,  in  respect  of  such 
province,  ...  to  levy  any  Duty,  Tax,  or  Assess- 
ment, .  .  .  except  ...  for  the  regulation  of  com- 
merce." The  minister's  resolution,  although  by 
most  of  his  supporters  thought  to  be  useless,  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  274  to  88, 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  the  Government  to 
hold  out  the  olive  branch  by  itself.     Lord  North, 
and  perhaps  the  King  also,  hoped  the  colonies  would 
accept  it;  but  by  all  maxims  of  politics  an  olive 
branch  was  more  likely  to  be  accepted  if  the  shin- 
ing sword  was  presented  at  the  same  time  as  the 
only  alternative.    As  early  as  the  10th  of  February, 
Lord  North  had  introduced  into  Parliament  a  bill, 
finally  passed  March  30,  "to  restrain  the  trade  and 
commerce"  of  the  New  England  colonies  to  "Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  British  islands  in  the 
West  Indies,"  and  to  exclude  these  colonies  from 
"carrying  on  any  fishery  on  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland," it  being  "highly  unfit  that  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  said  provinces  .  .  .  should  enjoy  the 
same  privileges  of  trade  .  .  .  to  which  his  Majesty's 
faithful  and  obedient  subjects  are  entitled. "    The 
provisions  of  this  act  were  extended  to  the  other 
colonies  in  April;  and  meantime  measures  were 
taken  to  strengthen  the  naval  forces. 


♦ 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  225 

The  6rst  certain  infornialion  that  Lord  North 
had  extended  the  olive  branch  reached  New  York 
April   24,  1775,  two  weeks  before  the   day  fixefl 
for  the  meeting  of  the  second  Continental  Con- 
giess.     Important  changes  had  taken  place  since 
the  first  Congress,  six  months  earlier,  had  sent 
forth  its  resolutions.    In  every  colony  there  was 
a  suflScient  number  of  patriots  who  saw  "the  rea- 
sonableness, the  apparent  utility,  and  necessity" 
of  forming  the  committees  which  the  Association 
recommended;  and  these  committees  everywhere, 
with  a  marked  degree  of  success,  immediately  set 
about   convincing   their   neighbors   of    the    util- 
ity and  necessity  of  signing  the  non-importation 
agreement,  or  at  least  of  observing  it  even  if  they 
were  not  disposed  to  sign  it.    To  deny  the  reason- 
ableness of  the  Association  was  now  indeed  mufh 
more  difficult  than  it  would  have  been  before  the 
Congress   assembled;    for    the    Congress,    having 
published  certain  resolutions  unanimously  entered 
into,  had  come  to  be  the  symbol  of  America  united 
in  defense  of  its  rights;  and  what  American,  if 
indeed  one  might  call  him  such,  would  wish  to  be 
thought  disloyal  to  America  or  an  enemy  of  its  lib- 
erties?    It  required  a  degret-  of  assurance  for  any 
man  to  set  up  his  individual  judgn.ent  against  the 

IS 


I 

i^ 


■    F  - 


in 


I- 


I* 


226      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

deliberate  and  united  judgment  of  the  chosen  rep- 
resentatives of  all  the  colonies;  and  that  must 
he  indeed  a  very  sul  lie  mind  which  could  draw 
the  distinction  between  an  enemy  of  liberty  and  a 
friend  of  liberty  who  was  unwilling  to  observe  the 
Association. 

Some  such  subtle  minds  there  were  —  a  consider- 
able number  in  most  colonies  who  declared  them- 
selves friends  of  liberty  but  not  of  the  Association, 
loyal  to  America  but  not  to  the  Congress.    One 
of  these  was  Samuel  Seabury,  an  Episcopalian 
clergyman   living  in   Westchester  County,   New 
York,  a  vigorous,  downright  man,  who  at  once 
expressed  his  sentiments  in  a  forcible  and  logical 
manner,  and  with  much  sarcastic  humor,  in   a 
series  of  pamphlets  which  were  widely  read  and 
much  commended  by  those  who  found  in  them 
their  own  views  so  effectively  expressed.     This 
Westchester  Farmer  — for  so  he  signed  himself  — 
proclaimed  that  he  had  always  been,  and  was  still, 
a  friend  of  liberty  in  general   and  of  American 
liberty  in  particular.    The  late  British  measures 
he  thought  unwise  and  illiberal,  and  he  had  hoped 
that  the  Congress  would  be  able  to  obtain  redress, 
and  perhaps  even  to  effect  a  permanent  recon- 
ciliation.   But  these  hopes  were  seen  to  be  vain 


.  .tUKSKISi  I^X 


J 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  2«7 

from  the  day  when  the  Congress  approved  the 
Suffolk  Resolutions  and,  instead  of  adopting  Mr. 
Galloway's  plan,  adopted  the  Association.  For 
no  sane  man  could  doubt  that,  under  the  thin 
disguise  of  "recommendations,"  Congress  had  as- 
sumed the  powers  of  government  and  counseled 
rebellion.  The  obvious  conclusion  from  this  was 
that,  if  one  could  not  be  a  loyid  American  without 
submitting  to  Congress,  then  it  was  impossible 
to  be  at  the  same  time  a  loyal  American  and  a 
loyal  British  subject. 

But,  if  the  problem  were  rightly  considered,  Mr. 
Seabury  thought  one  might  be  loyal  to  America  in 
the  best  sense  without  supporting  Congress;  for, 
apart  from  any  question  of  legality,  the  Association 
was  highly  inexpedient,  inasmuch  as  non-importa- 
tion would  injure  America  more  than  it  injured 
England,  and,  for  this  reason  if  for  no  others,  it 
would  be  found  impossible  to  "bully  and  frighten 
the  supreme  government  of  the  nation."  Yet  all 
this  was  beside  the  main  point,  nhich  was  that  the 
action  of  Congress,  whether  expedient  or  not,  was 
illegal.  It  was  illegal  because  it  authorized  the 
committees  to  enforce  the  Association  upon  all 
alike,  upon  tho.s*»  who  never  agreed  to  observe  it 
as  well  as  upon  those  who  did;  and  these  commit- 


I 


'iFC-h(?BiUlB»m^filf--Sit 


•1 


w 


f' 


4: 


THE  EV^  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
lees,  as  everyone  knew,  were  so  enforcing  it  and 
were  "imposing  penalties  upon  those  who  have 
presumed  to  viohite  it."  The  Congress  talked 
loudly  of  the  tyranny  of  the  British  Government. 
Tyranny!  Good  Heavens!  Was  any  tyranny  worse 
than  that  of  self-constituted  committees  which, 
in  the  name  of  liberty,  were  daily  conducting  the 
most  hateful  inquisition  into  the  private  affairs 
of  free  British  subjects?  "Will  you  choose  such 
committees?  Will  you  submit  to  them  should 
they  be  chosen  by  the  weak,  foolish,  turbulent 
part  of  the  .  .  .  people?  I  will  not.  No.  If  I 
must  be  enslaved,  let  it  be  by  a  King  at  least, 
and  not  by  a  parcel  of  upstart,  lawless  committee- 
men." 

The  Massachusetts  men  were  meanvMle  show- 
ing no  disposition  to  submit  to  the  King.  In  that 
colony  a  Provincial  Congress,  organized  at  Salem 
in  October,  1774,  and  afterwards  removed  to 
Cambridge,  had  assumed  all  powers  of  government 
in  spite  of  General  Gage  and  contrary  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  act  by  which  Parliament  had  pre- 
sumed to  remodel  the  Massachusetts  charter. 
Outside  of  Boston  at  least,  the  allegiance  of  the 
ptH)ple  was  freely  given  to  this  extra-legal  govern- 
ment; and  under  its  direction  the  towns  began  to 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  2^ 

I)r(.parc  for  <lefon.sc  by  oPKanizin^'  the  militia  aii.l 
procuring  and  storing  arms  and  ammimition. 

To  destroy  such  stores  of  anunum'tion  seemed  to 
(ieneral  Gage  quite  the  most  obvious  of  his  (hities; 
und  Colonel  Smith  was  accordingly  ordered   tj 
proceed  to  the  little  village  of  Concord,  some  eigh- 
teen miles  northwest  of  Boston,  an<l  destroy  the 
magazines  which  were  known  to  be  collected  there. 
The  night  of  the  iHth  of  April  was  the  time  fix.-d 
for  this  expedition;  and  in  the  evening  of  that  day 
I)atriots  in  Boston  note.l  with  alarm  that  bodies  of 
troops  were  moving  towards  the  waterside.     Dr. 
Joseph  Warrrn,  knowing  or  easily  gut-ssing  the 
•h-stination   of   the   troops,   at   once   despatche<l 
William   Dawes,  and  later  in   the  evening  Paid 
Revere  also,  to  Lexington  an<l  Coneonl  to  spread 
the  alarm.     As  the  little  army  of  Colonel  Smith  — 
a  thousand  men,  more  or  hvss  — loft  Boston  an.l 
marchiHl  up  into  the  country,  chureh  bells  and  the 
boonn'ng  of  cannon  announced  their  coming.      Day 
was  breaking  when  the  British  troops  approached 
the  »own  of  Lexington ;  and  there  on  the  green  they 
<ouhl  see.  in  the  early  morning  light,  perhaps  half 
a  hundred  nu'u  standing  in  military  array  — fifty 
against  a  thousand!     The  British  rushed' forward 
with  huzza.s,  in   the  midst  of  which  shots  were 


r 


i  . 


s 


?    s  'I 


u  . 


4 


tSO      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

heard;  and  when  the  little  band  of  minutemen 
was  disperse<l  eight  of  the  fifty  lay  dead  upon  the 
village  green. 

The  battle  of  Lexington  was  begun,  but  it  was 
not  yet  finished.     Pushing  on   to  Concord,  the 
thousand    tlisciplined    British    regulars    captured 
and  destroyed  the  military  stores  collected  there. 
This  was  easily  done;  but  the  return  from  Concord 
to  Lexington,  and  from  Lexington  to  Cambridge, 
pr.  ved  a  disastrous  retreat.     The  British  found 
indeiHl  no  minutemen  drawn  up  in  military  array 
to  block  their  path;  but  they  found  themselves 
subject  to  the  deadly  fire  of  men  concealed  behind 
the  trees  and  rocks  and  clumps  of  shrubs  that 
everywhere   conveniently   lined    the   open    road. 
With  this  method  of  warfare,  not  learned  in  books, 
the  British  were  unfamiliar.     Discipline  was  but  a 
handicap;  and  the  fifteen  hundred  soldiers  that 
General  Gage  sent  out  to  Lexington  to  rescue 
Colonel  Smith  served  only  to  make  the  disaster 
greater  in  the  end.     >Vhen  the  retreating  army 
finally  reached  the  shelter  of  Cambridge,  it  had 
lost,  in  killed  and  wounded,  247  men;  whilo  the 
Americans,  of    whom    it    had    been   vonfidently 
asserted  in  England  that  they  would  not  stand 
against  British  regulars,  had  lost  but  88. 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  «S1 

The  courier  announcing  tla-  news  of  Lexington 
passed  through  \ew  York  on  the  23(1  of  April. 
Twenty-four  hours  later,  during  the  heiglit  of  the 
excitement  occasioned  by  that  event.  intiUigenee 
arrived  from  England  that  Parliament  had  ap- 
proved  Lonl  North's  Resolution  on  Conciliation. 
For  extending  the  olive  branch,  the  time  was  in- 
auspicious; and  when  the  second  Contin<>ntal  Con- 
gress assembled,  two  weeks  later,  on  the  lOth  of 
May,  men  were  everywhere  wrathfully  declaring 
that  the  blood  shed  at  Lexington  made  allegiance 
to  Britain  forever  im|)ossible. 

It  might  indeed  have  seemed  that  the  time  had 
come  when  every  num  must  decide,  once  for  all, 
whether  he  would  submit  unreservedly  to  the  King 
or  stand  without  question  for  the  defense  of  .\mer- 
ica.  Yet  not  all  men,  not  u  nuijority  of  men  in 
the  second  Continental  Congress,  were  of  that 
opinion. 

The  second  Congress  was  filled  with  moderate 
minded  men  who  would  not  believe  the  time  had 
come  when  that  decision  had  to  be  made  —  men  who 
were  bound  to  sign  themselves  British-Americans 
till  the  last  possible  moment,  many  of  whom  could 
not  now  have  told  whether  in  the  end  they  would 
sign  themselves  Britons  or  Americans.     Surely, 


\. 


«3«       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Ihey  said,  we  neetl  not  ruako  tlu-  <lecision  yrt. 
We  have  the  best  of  ri>tti>on!t  for  knowing  that 
Bril  ain  wUl  not  pre**  rautti  rs  to  fxtrfmiiifs.  Can 
wf  not  handle  the  olive  hrunili  and  the  sword  as 
well  as  Lord  North?  A  lit t le  fighting,  to  con\  inee 
ministers  that  \vr  can't  l«e  frightened,  and  all  will 
bo  well.  We  shall  have  been  neither  rebels  n(»r 
slaves.  The  .second  Congress  was  full  of  men  who 
were,  as  yet,  **  N<'itherN'  r.' 

There  was  Joseph  GaH'-way.  once  more  clectiti 
to  represent  Pennsylvania,  ready  to  do  what  he 
could  to  kwp  Congress  from  ha-.ty  action,  hoping 
for  the  best  yet  rather  expecting  the  worst,  dis- 
creetly retiring,  at  an  early  date,  within  tiie  ranks 
of  the  British  loyalists.  John  Alsop,  the  ".soft, 
sweet"  man,  was  also  there,  active  enough  in  his 
mild  way  until  the  very  last  — until  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  as  he  said,  "closed  the  last 
di>or  to  ri'conciliation."  There,  too,  was  James 
Duane,  with  never  so  great  need  of  his  ".surveying 
eye"  to  enable  him  to  size  up  the  situation.  He 
is  more  discreet  than  any  oii's  and  sits  quietly  in 
his  seat,  on  those  days  when  he  finds  it  convenient 
to  attend,  which  is  not  too  often  —  especially  after 
November,  at  which  time  he  moved  his  effec* . 
to  Duanesborough,  and  so  very  soon  disappears 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  233 

from  sight,  exwpt  ptrhups  vicuriously  in  the  per- 
son of  his  .strvunt,  Junu.s  Hrutll,..  whom  we  sec 
flitting  obsounly  from  Phihuh-lphia  to  New  York 
conveyipK  secret  information  to  (Jovernor  Tryon. 
John  Jay,  llu.   hanl-remlinjf  young  lawyrr.  who 
favored  Mr.  (iaUowa/.s  plan  luil  in  the  emi  signed 
theA.ss,K-iali»n-herehe  is  again,  .dging  his  way 
carefully   along,   watching  his   strp.  «.ro.s.sing  no 
bridges   lufonhand.   well   over   indeed   JK-forc  he 
seems  aware  of  any  gulf  to  hv  ero.ss.d.    And  h.-rc 
is  the  famous  Pennsylvania  Farrmr,  Kader  of  all 
moderate   men,  John   Dickinson,   .)nly    too   well 
aware  of  the  gulf  opening  up  before  hi.n,  fervently 
praying  that  it  may  close  again  of  its  own  a  cord. 
Mr.   Dickinson   has   no   mind  for  anything'  hut 
concilialion,  to  obtain  which  he  will  go'  the  length 
of  donning  a   Colonels   uniform,  or  at    least  a 
Colonel's  title,  perftTting  himself  and  his  neigh- 
bors  in  the  manual  of  arms  against  the  daiy  when 
the  King  would  graciously  listen  to  the  loyal  and 
humble  petition  of  the  Congress. 

iMr.  Dickinson,  slaking  all  on  the  petition,  was 
distressed  at  the  rash  talk  that  went  on  out  of 
doors;  and  in  this  respwt,  no  one  distressed  him 
more  than  his  old  friend,  John  Adams,  who  thought 
and  said  that  a  petition  was  a  waste  of  time  and 


H 


MIOiOCOPY   RESOIUTION   TEST   CHART 

(ANSI  and  ISO  TEST  CHART  No.  2) 


1.0 


I.I 


^ 

lii^ 

5.0 

H^B 

it, 

■  3.2 

~ 

13.6 

i 

■  4.0 

2.2 


2.0 


1.8 


^     /APPLIED  irvA^GE 


1653   East   Main   Streel 

Rochester.   Neo   York        U609       USA 

(716)   482  -  0300  -  Phone 

(716)   288-  5989  -  Fa» 


»■ 


I 


M  i 


i  \ 


(I     ' 


234      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

who  was  all  for  the  most  vigorous  measures  (such, 
doubtless,  as  Demosthenes  might  have  counseled), 
—  the  seizure  of  all  crown  oflBcers,  the  formation 
of  state  governments,  the  raising  of  an  army, 
and  negotiations  for  obtaining  the  assistance  of 
France.    When  Mr.  Dickinson,  having  marshaled 
his  followers  from  the  middle  colonies  and  South 
Carolina,  got  his  petition  before  the  Congress, 
John  Adams,  as  a  matter  of  course,  made  "an 
opposition  to  it  in  as  long  a  speech  as  I  commonly 
made  ...  in  answer  to  all  the  arguments  .hat  had 
been  urged."    And  Adams  relates  in  his  Diary 
how,  being  shortly  called  out  of  Congress  Hall, 
he  was  followed  by  Mr.  Dickinson,  who  broke  out 
upon  him  in  great  anger.    "What  is  the  reason, 
Mr.  Adams,  that  you  New-England  men  oppose 
our  measures  of  reconciliation.'     There  now  is 
Sullivan,  in  a  long  harangue,  following  you  in  a 
determined  opposition  to  our  petition  to  the  King. 
Look  ye!     If  you  don't  concur  with  us  in  our 
pacific  system,  I  and  a  number  of  us  will  break  off 
from  you  in  New  England,  and  we  will  carry  on 
the  opposition  by  ourselves  in  our  own  way."    At 
that  moment  it  chanced  that  John  Adams  was 
"in  a  very  happy  temper"  (which  was  not  always 
the  case),  and  so,  he  says,  was  able  to  reply  very 


1    -^ 


1^ 


JOHN  DICKlSaON 
After  «iiiiiiitiiig  by  C.  W.  Peal  ,  ITWL" 


TBOMAS  PAIim 

OKOt^ansf  Ba^i««.  ^ninet  CoBectioivilMr  t^  FdHie 
■'  'tibraqr.    .  .  * 


14.' 


7.U'7.\/\  \\»\    /.W  A 


ir 


■,\7,\i.'\   'l.\'>>U'\ 

•il(*l  'I    J-<.'(    y.-i/.   ,f.    it  ;',i!,,    )    lMi;;.!,i         „(I!     i-'_j.>{    /■,j.l,..;i.nl 

-.•■T:,h!l,I 


;t; 


I 


I 


u 


m 

in 


-i , 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  235 

coolly.  "Mr.  Dickinson,  there  are  many  things 
that  I  can  very  cheerfully  sacrifice  to  harmony, 
and  even  to  unanimity;  but  I  am  not  to  be 
threatened  into  a  .  express  adoption  or  approbation 
of  measures  which  my  judgment  reprobates.  Con- 
gress must  judge,  and  if  they  pronoimce  against 
me,  I  must  submit,  as,  if  they  determine  against 
you,  you  ought  to  acquiesce. " 

The  Congress  did  decide.  It  decided  to  adopt 
Mr.  Dickinson's  petition;  and  to  this  measure 
John  Adams  submitted.  But  the  Congress  also 
decided  to  raise  a  Continental  army  to  assist 
Massachusetts  in  drivirg  the  British  forces  out 
of  Boston,  of  which  army  it  appointed,  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief, George  Washington,  Esq.;  and 
in  justification  of  these  measures  it  published  a 
Declaration  of  the  Causes  and  Necessity  of  Taking 
up  Arms: 


Our  cause  is  just.  Our  union  is  perfect.  Our  internal 
resources  are  great,  and,  if  necessary,  foreign  assistance 
is  undoubtedly  attainable.  .  .  .  Fortified  with  these 
animating  reflections,  we  .  ,  .  declare  that  .  .  .  the 
arms  we  have  been  compelled  by  our  enemies  to  as- 
sume, we  will  .  .  .  employ  for  the  preservation  of  our 
liberties,  being  with  one  mind  resolved  to  die  freemen 
rather  than  live  slaves.  .  .  .  We  have  not  raised  armies 
with    ambitious   designs   of    separating    from   Great 


SS6      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Britain.  •  .  .  We  shall  lay  them  down  when  hostilities 
shall  cease  on  the  part  of  the  aggressors.  .  .  .  With 
an  humble  confidence  in  the  mercies  of  the  supreme 
and  impartialJudge  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  we  .  . 
implore  his  divine  goodness  to  protect  us  happily 
through  this  great  conflict,  to  dispose  our  adversaries 
to  reconciliation  on  reasonable  terms,  and  thereby  to 
relieve  the  empire  from  the  calamities  of  civil  war. 

In  these  measures  Mr.  Dickinson  acquiesced,  as 
John  Adams  had  submitted  to  the  petition.  The 
"perfect"  union  which  was  thus  attained  was 
nevertheless  a  union  of  wills  rather  than  of  opin- 
ions; and  on  July  24,  1775,  in  a  letter  to  James 
Warren,  John  Adams  gave  a  frank  account  of  the 
state  of  mind  to  which  the  perfect  union  had 
reduced  him: 

In  confidence,  I  am  determined  to  write  freely  to  you 
this  time.  A  certain  great  Fortune  and  piddling 
Genius,  whose  Fame  has  been  trumpeted  so  loudly, 
has  given  a  silly  Cast  to  our  whole  Doings.  We  are 
between  Hawk  and  Buzzard.  We  ought  to  have  had 
in  our  Hands  a  month  ago  the  whole  Legislative,  ex- 
ecutive, and  judicial  of  the  whole  Continent,  and  have 
completely  modeled  a  Constitution;  to  have  raised  a 
naval  Power,  and  opened  our  Ports  wide;  to  have 
arrested  every  Friend  of  Governi^ent  on  the  Continent 
and  held  them  as  Hostages  for  the  poor  Victims  of 
Boston,  and  then  opened  the  Door  as  wide  as  possible 
for  Peace  and  Reconciliation.    After  that  they  might 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  237 

have  petitioned,  and  negotiated,  and  addi .  .,ied,  etc., 
if  they  would.  Is  all  this  extravagant?  Is  it  wild.' 
Is  it  not  the  soundest  Policy.' 

It  seems  that  Mr.  Adams  would  have  presented 
the  sword  boldly,  keeping  the  olive  branch  care- 
fully concealed  behind  his  back.  His  letter,  in- 
tercepted by  the  British  Government,  and  printed 
about  the  time  when  Mr.  Dickinson's  petition 
was  received  in  London,  did  nothing  to  make  the 
union  in  America  more  perfect,  or  to  facilitate 
the  opening  of  that  refractory  "Door  ...  for 
Peace  and  Reconciliation." 

The  truth  is  that  John  Adams  no  longer  believed 
in  the  possibility  of  opening  this  door,  even  by  the 
tiniest  crack;  and  even  those  who  still  had  faith 
in  thfc  petition  as  a  means  to  that  end  found  it 
somewhat  difficult  to  keep  their  faith  alive  during 
the  weary  month  of  October  while  they  waited 
for  the  King's  reply.    Mr.  Chase,  although  he  had 
"not  absolutely  discarded  every  glimpse  of  a  hope 
'!       «      'liation, "  admitted  that  the  prospect  was 
„-         "."    Mr.  Zubly  assured  Congress  that  he 
-ope  for  a  reconciliation  and  that  this  win- 
ter may  bring  it";  and  he  added,  as  if  justifying 
himself    against    sceptical    shrugs    of    shoulders, 
"I  may  enjoy  my  hopes  for  reconciliation;  others 


'     51 


k 


Kl 


till; 


p^ 


If  ; 


238      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

may  enjoy  theirs  that  none  will  take  place." 
It  might  almost  seem  that  the  idea  of  reconcilia- 
tion, in  this  October  of  1775,  was  a  vanishing 
image  to  be  enjoyed  retrospectively  rather  than 
anything  substantial  to  build  upon  for  i[  ^  future. 
This  it  was,  perhaps,  that  gave  especial  point  to 
Mr.  Zubly's  oft-repeated  assertion  that  Congress 
must  speedily  obtain  one  of  two  things  —  "a  rec- 
onciliation with  Great  Britain,  or  the  means  of 
carrying  on  the  war. " 

Reconciliation  or  war!  This  was  surely  a  new 
antithesis.  Had  not  arms  been  taken  up  for  the 
purpose  precisely  of  disposing  their  adversaries 
"to  reconciliation  on  reasonable  terms"?  Does 
Mr.  Zubly  mean  to  say  then  that  war  is  an  alter- 
native to  reconciliation — an  alternative  which  will 
lead  the  colonies  away  from  compromise  towards 
that  which  all  have  professed  not  to  desire?  Is 
Mr.  Zubly  hinting  at  independence  even  before 
the  King  has  replied  to  the  petition?  No.  This  is 
not  what  Mr.  Zubly  meant.  What  he  hat  '->  tue 
back  of  his  mind,  and  what  the  Congress  was 
coming  to  Lave  in  the  back  of  its  mind,  if  one 
may  judge  from  the  abbreviated  notes  which  John 
Adams  took  of  the  debates  in  the  fall  of  1775,  was 
that  if  the  colonies  could  not  obtain  reconciliation 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE 


2S0 


by  means  of  the  non-intxTcourse  nicnsures  very 
soon  —  this  very  winter  as  Mr.  Zuhly  liopecl— they 
would  have  to  rely  for  reconciliation  upon  a  vijfor- 
ous  prosecution  of  the  war;  in  wliich  case  the  non- 
intercourse  measures  were  likely  to  prove  an  ob- 
stacle rather  than  an  advantage,  since  they  would 
make  it  difficult,  if  n  t  iTipossible,  to  obtain  the 
"means  of  carrying  on  the  war." 

Tlie  non-intercourse  measures  had  been  designed 
to  obtain  conciliation  by  forcing  Great  Britain  to 
make  concessions;  but  if  Great  Britain  would  make 
no  concessions,  then  the  non-intercourse  measures, 
by  destroying  the  trade  and  prosperity  of  the 
colonies,  would  have  no  other  effect  than  to  bring 
about  conciliation  by  forcing  the  colonies  to  m-vke 
concessions  themselves.  This  was  not  the  kind  of 
conciliation  that  any  one  wanted;  and  .so  the  real 
antithesis  which  now  confronted  Congress  was  be- 
tween war  anu  non-intercour.se.  Mr.  Livingston 
put  the  situation  clearly  when  he  said:  "We  are 
between  hawk  and  buzzard;  we  puzzle  ourselves 
between  the  commercial  and  warlike  opposition." 

Through  J  debates  Congress  puzzled  itself 
over  the  diffic  -it  task  of  maintaining  the  Associa- 
tion and  of  obtaining  the  means  for  carrying  or. 
the  war.    Doubtless  a  simple  way  out  would  be 


\ 


l, 


^k'  ^ 


840      THE  EVT.  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

for  Congress  to  nllow  so  much  exportation  only  as 
might  be  necessary  to  pay  foi  arms  and  ammuni- 
lion;  and  still  not  so  simple  either,  since  it  would 
at  once  excite  many  jealousies.  ** To  get  powder," 
Mr.  Jay  observed,  **  we  keep  a  secret  law  that  pro- 
duce may  be  export cfl.  Then  come  the  wrangles 
among  the  people.  A  vessel  is  seen  loading  —  a 
fellow  runs  to  the  committee. "  Well,  it  could  not 
be  helped;  let  the  fellow  run  to  the  committee, 
and  let  the  committee  reassure  him  —  that  was 
the  business,  of  the  committee;  and  so  the  Con- 
gress authorized  the  several  colonies  to  export  as 
much  "produce,  except  homed  cattle,  sheep,  hogs, 
and  ix)ultry,  as  they  may  deem  necessary  for  the 
importation  of  arms,  ammunition,  sulphur,  and 
saltpetre."    Thus  powder  might  be  obtained. 

Nevertheless,  war  could  not  live  by  powder 
alone.  The  imponderable  moral  factors  had  to  be 
considered,  chief  of  which  was  the  popular  support 
or  opposition  which  Congress  and  the  army  might 
count  upon  under  certain  circumstances.  No 
doubt  people  were  patriotic  and  wished  to  main- 
tain their  rights;  but  no  doubt  people  would  be 
more  patriotic  and  more  enthusiastic  and  prac- 
tically active  in  their  support  of  both  Congress 
and  the  an  ^v,  if  they  were  reasonably  prosperous 


f       » 


.] 


ily  a§ 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  m 

and   conlenlcij   than    if   they   were   not.     S««lf- 
denying  ordinances  were,  hy  their  very  nature,  of 
temporary  and  limited  efRcaey;  and  it  was  pvr- 
tinent  to  inquire  how  h)nK  the  ptople  wouhi  be 
content  with  the  total  stoppage  of  trade  and  the 
decay  of  business  which  was  becoming  every  <lay 
more  marked.    *'\Ve  can  live  on  ac  -ns;  !)ut  will 
we.'"    It  would  perhaps  be  prudent  not  to  expect 
"more  virtue  .  .  .  from  our  people  than  any  peo- 
ple ever  had";  it  would  be  prudent  "not  to  put 
virtue  to  too  severe  a  test,  .  .  .  lest  we  wear  it 
out."    And  it  might  well  be  asked  what  would 
wear  it  out  and  "di. -,  .ite  us  more  than  the  decay 
of  all  business?    The  people  will  feel,  and  will  say, 
that  Co.igress  tax  them  and  oppress  them  mv)re 
than  Parliament."    If  the  people  were  to  b«'  asked 
to  fight  for  their  rights,  they  must  at  all  hazards 
not  be  allowed  to  say  that  Congress  oppressed  them 
more  than  Parliament ! 

For  the  moment  all  this  was  no  more  tha  a 
confession  that  the  Association,  originally 
signed  as  a  finely  chiseled  stepping-stcne  to  recon- 
ciliation, was  likely  to  prove  a  stumK'^n.'^-block 
unless  the  King  graciously  extei^'l'  i  his  royal  hand 
to  give  a  hearty  lift.  It  presently  appeared  that 
the  King  refused  to  extend  his  hand.    October  31, 

i6 


i! 


242  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 
1775,  information  reached  America  that  Richard 
Penn  and  Arthur  Lee,  having  presented  the  peti- 
tion to  Lord  Dartmouth,  were  informed  that  the 
King  would  not  receive  them,  and  furthermore  that 
no  answer  would  be  returned  to  the  Congress. 
Ignoring  the  petition  was  to  exhibit  only  one  de- 
gree more  of  contempt  for  that  carefully  prepared 
document  than  the  Congress  had  shown  for  Lord 
North's  Resolution  on  Conciliation;  and  now  that 
the  olive  branch  had  been  spurned  on  both  sides, 
it  was  a  little  difficult  to  see  how  either  side  could 
possibly  refuse  the  sword. 

That  the  colonies  would  refuse  the  sword  was 
not  very  likely;  but,  as  if  to  make  a  refusal  im- 
possible, the  British  Government,  on  December  22, 
1775,  decided  to  thrust  the  sword  into  their  hands. 
This  at  all  events  was  thought  by  many  men  to 
be  the  effect  of  the  Prohibitory  Act,  which  declared 
the  colonies  outside  the  protection  of  the  Crown, 
and  which,  for  the  irpose  of  reducing  them  to 
submission,  laid  an  embargo  upon  all  their  trade 
and  proclaimed  their  ports  in  a  state  of  blockade. 

I  know  not  [John  Adams  wrote]  whether  you  have 
seen  the  Act  of  Parliament  called  the  Restraining 
Act  or  Prohibitory  Act,  or  Piratical  Act,  or  Act  of 
Independency  —  for  by  all  these  titles  is  it  called.    I 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  243 

think  the  most  apposite  is  the  Act  of  Independency; 
the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons  have  united  in  sunder- 
ing this  country  from  that,  I  think,  forever.  It  is  a 
complete  dismemberment  of  the  British  Empire.  It 
throws  thirteen  colonies  out  of  the  royal  protection, 
and  makes  us  independent  in  spite  of  supplications 
and  entreaties.  It  may  be  fortunate  that  the  act  of 
Independency  should  come  from  the  British  Parlia- 
ment rather  than  from  the  American  Congress;  but  it 
is  very  odd  that  Americans  should  hesitate  at  accept- 
ing  such  a  gift  from  them. 


The  majority  of  those  who  refused  to  accept  it  — 
and  the  number  was  large  —  retired,  with  saddened 
hearts  for  the  most  part,  into  the  ranks  of  the  Brit- 
ish Loyalists;  only  a  few,  with  John  Dickinson  at 
their  head,  could  still  visualize  the  vanishing  image 
of  reconciliation.     Whether  the  Prohibitory  Act 
made  reconciliation  impossible  or  not,  one  thing 
at  all  events  it  made  clear:  if  Britain  was  bent  on 
forcing  the  colonies  to  submit  by  ruining  their 
trade,  it  could  scarcely  be  good  policy  for  the  colo- 
nies to  help  her  do  it;  of  which  the  reasonable  con- 
clusion seemed  to  be  that,  since  the  Pariiament 
wished  to  close  the  ports  of  America  to  the  worid, 
Congress  would  do  well  to  open  them  to  the  worid. 
On  February  16,  1776,  Congress  accordingly  took 
into  "consideration  the  propriety  of  opening  the 


ih 


^  i 


244      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

ports."  To  declare  the  ports  open  to  the  world  was 
no  doubt  easily  done;  but  the  main  thing  after  all 
was  to  carry  on  trade  with  the  world;  and  this  was 
not  so  easy  since  British  naval  vessels  were  there 
to  prevent  it.  "We  can't  carry  on  a  beneficial 
trade,  as  our  enemies  will  take  our  ships";  so  Mr. 
Sherman  said,  and  of  this  he  thought  the  obvious 
inference  was  that  "a  treaty  with  a  foreign  power 
is  necessary,  before  we  open  our  trade,  to  protect 

it." 

"A  treaty  with  a  foreign  power"  — Mr.  Wythe 
also  mentioned  this  as  a  possible  way  of  reviving 
the  trade  of  the  colonies;   but  a  treaty  with  a 
foreign  power  was  easier  conceived  of  than  made, 
and  Mr.  Wythe  thought  "other  things  are  to 
be  considered  before  we  adopt  such  a  measure." 
In  considering  these  "other  things,"  Mr.  Wythe 
asked  and  answered  the  fundamental  question: 
"In  what  character  shall  we  treat?  — as  subjects 
of  Great  Britain  — as  rebels?  ...    If  we  should 
ofiFer  our  trade  to  the  court  of  France,  would  they 
take  notice  of  it  any  more  than  if  Bristol  or  Liver- 
pool should  offer  theirs,  while  we  profess  to  be 
subjects?    No.    We  must  declare  ourselves  a  free 
people."    Thus  it  appeared  that  the  character  of 
British  subjects,  no  less  than  the  Association,  was 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  245 

a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  obtaining  "the 
means  of  carrying  on  the  war."  The  sword,  as  an 
instrument  for  maintaining  rights,  could  after  all 
not  be  effectively  wielded  by  America  so  long  as 
her  hand  was  shackled  by  even  the  half-broken  ties 
of  a  professed  allegiance  to  Britain.  Therefore, 
when  the  Congress,  on  the  6th  of  April,  opened  the 
ports  of  the  colonies  to  the  worid,  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  a  foregone  conclusion. 

The  idea  of  independence,  for  many  months 
past,  had  hovered  like  a  disembodied  hope  or 
menace  about  the  entrance  ways  of  controversy. 
A  few  clear-sighted  men,  such  as  John  Adams  and 
Samuel  Seabury,  had  so  long  contemplated  the 
idea  without  blinking  that  it  had  taken  on  familiar 
form  and  substance.    But  the  great  majority  had 
steadily  refused  to  consider  it,  except  as  a  possible 
alternative  not  needing  for  the  present  to  be  em- 
braced.    All  these  moderate,  middle-of-the-way 
men  had  now  to  bring  this  idea  into  the  focus  of 
attention,  for  the  great  illusion  that  Britain  would 
not  push  matters  to  extremities  was  rapidly  dis- 
solving, and  the  time  was  come  when  it  was  no 
longer  possible  for  any  man  to  be  a  British-Ameri- 
can and  when  every  man  must  decide  whether  it 
was  better  to  be  an  American  even  at  the  price 


.1: 


246      THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

of  rebellion  or  a  Briton  even  at  the  price  of  sub- 
mission. It  is  true  that  many  never  made  up  their 
minds  on  this  point,  being  quite  content  to  swear 
allegiance  to  whichever  cause,  according  to  time  or 
place,  happened  to  be  in  the  ascendant.  But  of 
all  those  thinking  men  whose  minds  could  be  made 
up  to  stay,  perhaps  a  third  —  this  is  the  estimate  ■ 
of  John  Adams  —  joined  the  ranks  of  the  British 
Loyalists;  while  the  rest,  with  more  or  less  reluc- 
tance, gave  their  support,  little  or  great,  to  the 
cause  of  independence. 

When  one  has  made,  with  whatever  reluctance, 
an  irrevocable  decision,  it  is  doubtless  well  to  be- 
come adjusted  to  it  as  rapidly  as  possible;  and  this 
he  can  best  do  by  thinking  of  the  decision  as  a  wise 
one  -  -  the  only  one,  in  fact,  which  a  sensible  person 
could  have  made.  Thus  it  was  that  the  idea  of 
independence,  embraced  by  most  men  with  reluc- 
tance as  d  last  resort  and  a  necessary  evil,  rapidly 
lost,  in  proportion  as  it  seemed  necessary,  its 
character  of  evil,  took  on  the  character  of  the 
highest  wisdom,  and  so  came  to  be  regarded  as  a 
predestined  event  which  all  honest  patriots  must 
rejoice  in  having  had  a  hand  in  bringing  about. 
This  change  in  the  point  of  view  would  doubtless 
have  been  made  in  any  case;  but  in  rapidly  invest- 


;-3l 


CONGRESS  VOTING  INDEPENDENCE 

Painting  begun  by  Robert  Edge  Kiie,  left  unfinished  at  hia  death 
m  1788,  and  completed  by  Edward  Savage.  It  was  painted  in  the 
room  where  the  event  which  it  depicts  took  place,  and  nany  of  the 
portimita  were  paint«l  from  life.  Sfateen  of  these  portraiU  have  been 
Mknbfied  and  some  of  them  attributed  to  their  respective  painters  by 
Charles  Henry  Hart.  See  the  Penmylfmia  Magarine  of  HuOory  and 
Aniupolon.  Vol.  m.  In  the  coUectioo  of  the  Historical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania,  Hiiladelphia. 


ll 

fl 


Mi 


h 


S 


1   i 


I  ', 


/^.i 


m  \ 


[t«  i  I 


y  ^.|! 


'i>i 


'•;lif 


il;     ,. 

JM^!'  t 

3 

IKt; 

'  ■ 

f9^' 

w 

■■M 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  847 

ing  the  idea  of  independence  with  the  shining 
virtues  of  an  absolute  good  to  be  embraced  joy- 
ously, a  great  influence  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
little  pamphlet  entitled  Common  Sense,  written  by 
a  man  then  known  to  good  patriots  as  Thomas 
Paine,  and  printed  in  January,  1776.  Intrinsically 
considered,  Common  Sense  was  indeed  no  grerL 
performance.  The  matter,  thin  at  best,  was 
neither  profoundly  nor  subtly  reasoned;  the 
manner  could  hardly  be  described  by  even  the 
most  complacent  critic  as  humane  or  engaging. 
Yet  Common  Sense  had  its  brief  hour  of  fame. 
Its  good  fortune  was  to  come  at  the  psychological 
moment;  and  being  everywhere  read  during  t'lC 
months  from  January  to  July,  1776,  it  was  pre- 
cisely suited  to  convince  men,  not  so  much  that 
they  ought  to  declare  independence,  as  that  they 
ought  to  declare  it  gladly,  ought  to  cast  off  lightly 
their  former  false  and  mawkish  affection  for  the 
"mother  country"  and  once  for  all  to  make  an 
end  of  backward  yearning  looks  over  the  shoulder 
at  this  burning  Sodom, 

To  a  militant  patriot  like  Thomas  Paine  it  was 
profoundly  humiliating  to  recall  that  for  ten  years 
past  Americans  had  professed  themselves  "hum- 
ble and  loyal  subjects"  and  "dutiful  children," 


■■I 


1^ 


(hi 


m 


m 


248       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

yielding  to  none  in  "admiration"  for  the  "excel- 
lent British  Constitution,"  desiring  only  to  live 
and  die  as  free  citizens  under  the  protecting  wing 
of  the  mother  country.  Recalling  all  this  sicken- 
ing sentimentalism,  Mr.  Paine  uttered  a  loud  and 
ringing  Beau!  Let  us  clear  our  minds  of  cant, 
he  said  in  effect,  and  ask  ourselves  what  is  the  na- 
ture of  government  in  general  and  of  the  famous 
British  Constitution  in  particular.  Like  the  Abb6 
Siey^s,  Mr.  Paine  had  completely  mastered  the 
science  of  government,  which  was  in  fact  ex- 
tremely simple.  Men  form  societies,  he  said,  to 
satisfy  their  wants,  and  then  find  that  govern- 
ments have  to  be  established  to  restrain  their 
wickedness;  and  therefore,  since  government  is 
obviously  a  necessary  evil,  that  government  is 
best  which  is  simple^it. 

Just  consider  then  this  "excellent  British  Con- 
stitution, "  and  say  whether  it  is  simple.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  the  most  complicated,  irrational,  and 
ridiculous  contrivance  ever  devised  as  a  govern- 
ment of  enlightened  men.  Its  admirers  say  that 
this  complexity  is  a  virtue,  on  account  of  the  nice 
balance  of  powers  between  King,  Lords,  and  Com- 
mons, which  guarantees  a  kind  of  liberty  through 
the  resulting  inertia  of  the  whole.    The  Lords 


i 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  flM 

check  the  Commons  and  the  Commons  check  the 
King.  But  how  comer  it  thui  the  King  needs  to  be 
checked?  Can  he  not  be  trusted?  This  is  really 
the  secret  of  the  whole  business  —  that  Monarchy 
naturally  lends  to  despotism;  so  that  the  compli- 
cation of  the  British  Constitution  is  a  virtue  only 
because  its  basic  principle  is  fr'  ..  and  vicious.  If 
Americans  still  accept  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
Right  of  Kings,  well  and  good;  if  not,  then  in 
Heaven's  name  let  them  cease  to  bow  down  in 
abject  admiration  of  the  British  Constitution! 

And  in  ceasing  to  admire  the  British  Consti- 
tution, Americans  should  also,  Thomas  Paine 
thoug»  t,  give  up  that  other  Tatal  error,  the  super- 
stition that  up  to  the  present  unhappy  moment 
the  colonies  had  derived  great  benefits  from  living 
under  the  protecting  wing  of  the  mother  country. 
Protection!  "We  have  boasted  the  protection 
of  Great  Britain,  without  considering  that  her 
motive  was  interest  not  attachment;  and  that  she 
did  not  protect  us  from  our  enemies  on  our  own 
account,  but  from  her  enemies  on  her  own  account, 
from  those  who  have  no  quarrel  with  us  on  any 
other  account,  and  who  will  always  be  oar  enemies 
on  the  same  account. "  An  odd  sort  of  protection 
that,  which  served  only  to  entangle  the  colonies 


;  ■ 


IJi 


H 


I    ' 


MJ      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

in  the  toils  of  European  intrigues  and  rivalries, 
and  to  make  enemies  of  those  who  would  other- 
wise be  friends!  "Our  duty  to  mankind  at  large, 
as  well  as  to  ourselves,  instructs  us  to  renounce 
the  alliance:  because,  any  submission  to,  or 
dependence  upon,  Great  Britain,  tends  directly 
to  involve  this  continent  in  European  wars  and 
quarrels,  and  set  us  at  variance  with  nations  who 
would  otherwise  seek  our  friendship  and  against 
whom  we  have  neither  anger  nor  complaint." 

What  foolishness  then  to  seek  reconciliation,  even 
if  it  were  possible!  Reconciliation  at  this  stage 
would  be  the  ruin  of  America.  If  King  George 
were  indeed  clever,  he  would  eagerly  repeal  all  the 
obnoxious  acts  and  make  every  concession;  for 
when  the  colonies  had  once  become  reconciled  he 
could  accomplish  by  "craft  and  subtlety,  in  tho 
long  run,  what  he  cannot  do  by  force  and  violence 
in  the  short  one. "  The  colonies,  having  come  to 
maturity,  cannot  always  remain  subject  to  tute- 
lage; like  the  youth  who  has  reached  his  ma- 
jority, they  must  sooner  or  later  go  their  own 
way.  Why  not  now?  Beware  of  reconciliation 
and  of  all  those  who  advocate  it,  for  they  are 
either  "interested  men,  who  are  not  to  be  trusted, 
weak  men  who  cannot  see,  prejudiced  men  who  will 


Pi. 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  m 

not  see,  or  a  certain  set  of  moderate  men  who  t  hink 
better  of  the  EuroiM-an  world  than  it  desM-rves." 

Such  arguments  were  indewl  precisely  suited  to 
convince  men  that  independence,  so  far  from  being 
an  event  in  wliich  they  had  become  entangled  by 
the  fatal  network  of  circumstance,  was  an  event 
which  they  freely  willed.    "Read  by  almost  every 
American,  and  recommended  as  a  work  replete 
with  truth,  again:.t  which  none  but  the  partial 
and  prejudiced  can  form  any  objection,  ...  it 
satisfied  multitudes  that  it  is  their  true  interest 
immediately  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  which 
the  .  .  .  colonists   have   been    bound    to   Great 
Britain,    and   to   open    their   commerce,   as   an 
independent  people,  to   all   the  nations  of  the 
world. "  In  April  and  May,  after  the  Congress  nad 
opened  the  ports,  the  tide  set  strongly  and  irre- 
sistibly in  the  direction  of  the  formal  declaration. 
"Every  post  and  every  day  rolls  in  upon  us,"  .John 
Adams  said,  "Independence  like  a  torrent."     It 
was  on  the  7th  of  June  that  Richard  Henry  Lee,  in 
behalf  of  the  Virginia  delegation  and  in  obedience 
to  the  instructions  from  the  Virginia  Convention, 
moved  "that  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of 
right  ought  to  be,  free  and  indepentient  States  .  .  .  ; 
that  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  take  tlie  most 


mi. 


.   |1^;U 


252      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

effectual  measures  for  forming  foreign  Alliances; 
.  .  .  and  that  a  plan  of  confederation  be  prepared 
and  transmitted  to  the  respective  Colonies  for  their 
consideration  and  approbation." 

The  "resolution  respecting  independency,"  de- 
bated at  length,  was  postponed  till  the  1st  of  July, 
when  it  was  again  brought  up  for  consideration. 
It  was  still,  on  that  day,  opposed  by  many,  chiefly 
by  John  Dickinson,  who  now  said  that  he  should 
not  be  against  independence  ultimately,  but  that 
he  could  not  consent  to  it  at  the  present  moment 
because  it  would  serve  to  divide  rather  than  to  unite 
the  colonies.  At  the  close  of  the  debate  on  the  1st 
of  July,  there  seemed  little  prospect  of  carrying  the 
resolution  by  a  unanimous  vote.  The  Delaware 
deputies  were  evenly  divided,  the  third  member, 
Caesar  Rodney,  not  being  at  the  moment  in  Phila- 
delphia; the  Pennsylvania  deputies  were  opposed 
to  the  resolution,  three  against  two;  while  the 
New  York  and  South  Carolina  deputies  were  not 
in  a  position  to  vote  at  all,  having,  as  they  said,  no 
instructions.  The  final  vote  was  therefore  again 
postponed  until  the  following  day. 

Which  of  the  deputies  slept  this  night  is  not 
known.  But  it  is  known  that  Caesar  Rodney, 
hastily  summoned,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode 


iMflMMHBHa 


TESTING  THE  ISSUE  253 

post-haste  to  Philadelphia,  arriving  in  time  to  cast 
the  vote  of  Delaware  in  favor  of  independence;  it 
is  known  that  John  Dickinson  and  Robert  Morris 
remained  away  from  Independence  Hall,  and  that 
James  Wilson  changed  his  mind  and  voted  with 
Franklin  and  Morton;  and  it  is  known  that  the 
South   Carolina  deputies  came  somehow  to  the 
conclusion,  over  night,  that  their  instructions  were 
after  all  sufficient.    Thus  it  was  that  on  July  2, 
1776,  twelve  colonies  voted  that  "these  United 
Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be.  Free  and 
Independent  States."    One  week  later,  the  New 
York  deputies,  having  been  properly  instructed, 
cast  the  vote  of  their  colony  for  the  resolution 
also. 

Meanwhile,  a  committee  had  been  appointed  to 
prepare  a  formal  declaration,  setting  forth  the 
circumstances  and  the  motives  which  might 
justify  them,  in  the  judgment  of  mankind,  in 
taking  this  momentous  step.  The  committee 
had  many  meetings  to  discuss  the  matter,  and, 
when  the  main  points  had  been  agreed  upon,  John 
Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson  were  instructed  to 
"draw  them  up  in  form,  and  clothe  them  in  a 
l>roper  dress. "  Many  years  afterwards,  in  1822, 
John  Adams  related,  as  accurately  as  he  could. 


l?n 


254       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

the  conversation  which  took  place  when  these  two 
met  to  perform  the  task  assigned  them.  "Jeffer- 
son proposed  to  me  to  make  the  draught.  I  said, 
•I  will  not.'  'You  should  do  it.'  'Oh!  no.'  'Whj 
will  you  not?  You  ought  to  do  it.'  'I  will  not.' 
'Why?'  'Reasons  enough.'  'What  can  be  your 
reasons?'  'Reason  first  — You  are  a  Virginian, 
and  a  Virginian  ought  to  appear  at  the  head  of  this 
business.  Reason  second  —  I  am  obnoxious,  sus- 
pected, and  unpopular.  You  are  very  much  other- 
wise. Reason  third  —  You  can  write  ten  times 
better  than  I  caii '  'Well,'  said  Jefferson,  'if  you 
are  decided,  I  will  do  as  well  as  I  can.' "  In  some 
such  manner  as  this  it  came  about  that  Thomas 
Jefferson  wrote  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
no  doubt  doing,  as  he  said,  the  best  he  could. 

It  is  the  judgment  of  posterity  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
did  very  well  —  which  was  doubtless  due  partly  to 
the  fact  that  he  could  write,  if  not  ten  times  better, 
at  least  ^^etter  than  John  Adams.  Yet  the  happy 
phrasing  of  a  brief  paragraph  or  two  could  scarcely 
by  itself  have  won  so  much  fame  for  the  author; 
and  perhaps  much  of  the  success  of  this  famous 
paper  came  from  the  circumstance  that  ten  years 
of  controversy  over  the  question  of  political  rights 
had  forced  Americans  to  abandon,  step  by  step. 


Mft 

h 


Jl^\-    -4... 


DESK  OX   WHICH   THOMAS  JEFtERSON  WBOTE   THE 
DECLARATiON  OF  INOiPENDESCE^ 

To  which  i.  rtUched  tlie  fdlowfcig,  «rUik»tJo.,  b  *»««,«•. 

handwriting:  ~""    , 

memorial  of  aie<^     U  w^  nu>de  ff^  ^  ij^ii^  ^  JZ^kpV^: 

arnoalrnthat  cUy  in  M^.  1779.  «nd  u  <*•  ufciriW  owTIiS^ 
^rotetheDeclaratumofhArn,dMmoe.   iW««.««a<MJW««,  A« 

Charter  of  our  Indepndaiee.  ^^ 

Monlicello.    If 09. 18, 18i5, 

Photograph  from  the  original  objecte  m  the  LOntty  nf  tlu)  IV. 
partment  of  State.  Washington.  J  «  «•  i«- 


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TESTING  THE  ISSUE 


255 


the  restricted  ground  of  the  positive  and  pre- 
scriptive rights  of  Englishmen  and  to  take  their 
stand  on  the  broader  ground  of  the  natural  and 
inherent  rights  of  man.  To  have  said,  "We  hold 
this  truth  to  be  self-evident:  that  all  English- 
men are  endowed  by  the  Brit!  ':  Constitution 
with  the  customary  right  of  taxing  themselves 
internally"  would  probably  have  made  no  great 
impression  on  the  sophisticated  European  mind. 
It  was  Thomas  Jefferson's  good  fortune,  in  voic- 
ing the  prevailing  sentiment  in  America,  to  give 
classic  expression  to  those  fundamental  principles 
of  a  political  faith  which  was  destined,  in  the 
course  of  a  hundred  years,  to  win  the  allegiance 
of  the  greater  part  of  the  western  world. 

"We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident:  that  all 
men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by 
their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable  Rights,  that 
among  these,  are  Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
Happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights,  Govern- 
ments are  instituted  among  Men,  deriving  their 
just  Powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 
That,  whenever  any  form  of  Government  becomes 
destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of  the 
People  to  alc^.  or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute 
new  Government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such 


I)'!*i 


256       THE  EVE  OP  THE  REVOLUTION 

Principles  and  organizing  its  Powers  i''-  suck  form, 
as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  t'>  effect  their 
Safety  and  Happiness." 

It  is  to  these  principles  —  for  a  generation  some- 
what obscured,  it  must  be  confessed,  by  the  Sb' 
Sword  and  the  Almighty  Dollar,  by  the  lengthen- 
ing shadow  of  Imperialism  and  the  soporific  haze 
of  Historic  Rights  and  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest 
—  it  is  to  these  principles,  these  "glittering  gen- 
eralities, "  that  the  minds  of  men  are  turning  again 
in  this  day  of  desolation  as  a  refuge  from  the  cult 
of  eflBciency  and  from  faith  in  "that  which  is  just 
by  the  judgment  of  experience. " 


I  1   tl 


^fl 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Contemporary  Writings:    Many  of  the  most  impor- 
tant documents  for  this  period  are  in  the  following  brief 
collections:    W.  Macdonald,  Select  Charters  and  Other 
Documents,   1906;  H.   W.   Preston.  Documents  Illus- 
trative  of  American  History,  5th  ed.,  1900;  II.  Nilcs 
Principles  and  Acts  of  the  Revolution  in  Amt.ica,  1822- 
J.  Almon.  Collection  of  Papers  Relative  to  the  Disput- 
between  Great  Britain  and  America,  1777  (commonly 
cited  as  Prior  Documents).    The  spirit  of  the  times  is 
best  seen  m  the  contemporary  newspapers,  many  ex- 
tracts from  which  arc  printed  in  F.  Moore.  Diary  of  the 
American  Revolution  from  the  Newspapers  and  Original 
Documents,  1863.  Of  the  numberless  controversial  pam- 
phlets,  the  foUcwmg  are  noteworthy:  J.  Otis.  Rights 
of   the    British    Colonies  Asserted   and  Proved,   1764- 
p.  Dulaney,  Considerations  oti  the  Propriety  of  Impos- 
ing Taxes  on  the  British  Colonies,  1765;  J.  Dickinson 
Letters  from  a  Farmer  in  Pennsylvania  to  the  Inhabitants 
of  the  British  Colonies,  1768  (also  in  Writings  of  John 
Dickinson,  3  vols.  1895);  W.  Kno.x.  The  Controversy  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies  Reviewed,  1769  (ex- 
cellent pro-British  reply  to  Dickinson);  S.  Jenyns,  The 
Objections  to  the  Taxation  of  Our  American  Colonies 
Briefly  Considered,  1765;  J.  Wilson,  Considerations  on 
the  Nature  and  Extent  of  the  Legislative  Authority  of  the 


«88 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


It 


British  Parliament,  1T74  (also  in  The  Worke  of  Jamea 
Wilaon,  2  vols.  1896);  S.  Seabury,  Free  ThoughU  on  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress,  1774;  T.  Paine, 
Common  Sense,  1776  (also  in  Writings  of  Thomas  Paine, 
4  vols.  1894-96).     These  pamphlets  arc  not  available 
to  most  readers,  but  all  of  them,  together  with  many 
others,  have  been  admirably  described  and  summarized 
in  M.  C.  Tyler,  The  Literary  History  of  the  American 
Revolution,  2  vols.  1897.    The  letters  and  public  papers 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Revolution  have  been  mostly 
printed,  among  which  some  of  the  most  valuable  and 
interesting  collections  are:  C.  F.  Adams,  The  Works 
of  John  Adams,  10  vols.  1856  (vol.  n);  J.  Adams, 
Familiar  Letters  of  John  A^ams  and  his  Wife  Abigail 
Adams,  1875;  W.  C.  Ford,  Th.^  Warren- Adams  Letters, 
1917  (vol.  i);  A.  H.  Smyth,  The  Writings  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  10  vols.  1905-1907  (vols,  iv-vi);  P.  L.  Ford, 
The  Writings  of  John  Dickinson,  3  vols.  1895;  H.  A. 
Cushing,  The  Writings  of  Samuel  Adams,  4  vols.  1904- 
1908;  P.  O.  Hutchinson,  Diary  and  Letters  of  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  2  vols.  1884.    The  following  works  give 
the  history  of  the  time  as  it  appeared  to  various  con- 
temporaries: W.  Gordon,  History  of  the  Rise,  Progress, 
and  Establishment  of  American  Independence,  4  vols. 
1788  (parts  of  the  work  taken  bodily  from  the  Annual 
Register);  D,  Ramsey,  History  of  the  Revolution  of  South 
Carolina,  2  vols.  1785;  A.  Graydon,  Memoirs  of  His 
Own  Times,  1846;  T.  Hutchinson,  History  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  3  vols.  1795-1828  (based  on  documents 
collected  by  the  author,  some  of  which  were  destroyed 
in  the  Stamp  Act  riots);  Mercy  Warren,  History  of 
the  American  Revolution,  3  vols.  1805   (author  was  a 
sister  of  James  Otis);  W.  Moultrie,  Memoirs  of  the 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE  850 

Ammcan  Revdutian  so  far  as  U  Related  to  North  and 

/I     f'^«»"  ««««<»«'«.  2  vol..  1881;  T.  Jones.  His- 

1879  by  a  prominent  New  York  Loyalist) ;  The  Annual 

nes  of  „oIU.cal  events  supposed  to  have  been  prepared 
by  Edmund  Burke);  H.  Walpole,  Memoirs  of  ti  ReZ 
of  George  the  Third,  4  vols.  1804 

Secondary  Works:    The  best  single  volume  on  the 
Revolution  is  W.  E  11   I>«#.kv    ruT  t  «     . 

/;««    iQio     rli  .  ^^'^y*  ^"«  American  Revolu- 

/  !?•  ,?  ^^"^  ^"^  accounts:  E.  Channing,  Uis- 
lory  of  the  United  States,  vol.  „,.  1912;  G.  Howa/d 
Prehrmnanesofthe  American  Remlution,  1905;  S.  G.' 
tisher,  Struggle  for  American  Independence,  S  vols.  1908 
(controverts  many  traditional  ideas.  Interesting  book 
by  a  man  who  has  been  bored  by  the  laudation  of  the 
heroic  and  patriotic  side  of  the  Revolution).  Of  the 
more  detailed  histories,  the  best  are:  G.  Bancroft 
History  of  the  United  States,  10  vols.  1834-1874  (vols* 
v-vni  deal  with  the  period  1765-1776.    Strongly  preju- 

collected   m  Europeat   archives,  some  of  which  are 

not  easily  obtainable  elsewhere.    Revised  ed..  6  vols. 

1885.  omits  notes  and  references,  and  therefore  not  so 

valuable  as  the  original  edition);  G.  O.  Trevelyan. 

The  American  Revolution,  6  vols.  1899-1914  (brilliantlv 

wntten  by  an  Englishman  of  Liberal  sympathies.    On 

the  whole  the  work   on  the  Revolution   best  worth 

reading).    Studies  of  the  beginnings  of  the  Revolution 

in  particular  colonies:   C.  H.  Lincoln.  Revolutionary 

Movement  m  Pennsylvania,  1901;  H.  J.  Eckenrode! 

The  Revolviton  m  Virginia,  1916;  C.  L.  Becker.  Evdory 


I 


MO 


BIBUOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 


oj  PolUieal  Partiea  in  New  York,  1760-1776, 1909.  The 
best  account  of  Mie  British  policy  leading  up  to  the 
Grenville  mea'  >s  is  G.  L.  Beer,  British  Colonial  Poliqf, 
t75^-176f^  I.  The  interesting  and  important  sub- 
ject of  tnc  Loyalists  is  sketched  in  ('.  II.  Van  Tyne, 
The  Loyalistg  of  the  American  Revolution,  1008.  Inter- 
esting biographies  well  worth  reading:  W.  W.  Henry, 
Patrick  Henry:  Life,  Correspondence,  and  Speeches,  S 
vols.  1801;  J.  K.  Ilosraer,  Life  of  Thomas  Hutchinson, 
1806;  J.;K.  Hosmer,  Samuel  Adams,  1893;  M.  Chamber- 
lin,  John  Adams,  1884;  C.  J.  Stills,  The  Life  and  Times 
of  John  Dickinson,  1801;  D.  D.  Wallace,  Life  of  Henry 
Laurens,  1015;  P.  L.  Ford,  The  Many-Sided  Franklin, 
1800;  J.  Parton,  Life  and  Timet  of  Benjamin  Franklin^ 
2  vols.  1867. 


i: 


,s 


I 


1 


INDEX 


Adanifl,  John,  o,      irginia  Rno- 
lutionx,  77;  Attitude  on  Stamp 
Art  quenlion,  IHI.  91;  dctemU 
nolilicrs.    lit);   incurs  populwr 
cliapleanui*.   lUl),   13<;  retires 
from  puliiic  affairs.  15«;  port 
in    Mass.    controversy,     1H,5; 
journeys  to  lir-it  Continental 
C  ongress,  WO,  «)8-l«;  at  first 
Continental     ConKrcss,     *()'), 
■ili-\H.   833-3t,  i;l5.  <36-;ir; 
on    Prohibitory   Act,    i4i   J.*;; 
idea  of  indepcniience,  iM.V,  to 
draft    Declaration    of    Indo- 
pendenee  with  Jefferson.  8.5;}; 
urges  Jefferson  to  write  Dec- 
laration, tSi 
Adams.  Samuel.  Sugar  Art  pro- 
test, OS;  abhorrence  of  Boston 
riots,  8.5;  attitude  on  Stamp 
Act   question.   01;   assembles 
town    meeting.     188;    drafts 
circular    letter,     13»-3«;    on 
Hutchinson,    150;    Otis    sus- 
picious of.  llii;  life  and  char- 
acter, 153-58,  KJO-CU;  portrai'. 
by  Copley,  150;  leader  in  crisis. 
163-65,  175;  controversy  with 
Hutchinson,  170  etgrq.;  gosto 
first  Continental  Congress,  8()0 
Adams.  Samuel,  the  elder,  154 
Alsop,  John,  811,  838 
Amherst,  Jeffrey,  Ceneral.  3fl 
Annual  Register,  150 
Army,     Contiuental,     Congress 

decides  to  raise,  835 
Association    of    1774,    810-80, 
885-86, 841 


Harr#.    Ismc.    Colonel,  quotf<d. 

47.  88 
HcHkford.  Alderman,  quoted.  41 
Hcclford,  Duke  of,  181 
Bedford,    (irosvenor.    Collector 
of  Customs  at  port  of  I'hila- 
delphia.  13-17 
Rernnrd.   Francis.   (Governor  of 
Mass.,  corruption.  80;  desires 
changes    in    colonial    govern- 
ment.   81.    ii;    and    Knancr. 
O'i;  and  Nirginia  llesolution.s, 
7(1;    unable    to    protect   Cus- 
toms    Commissioners,       186; 
succeeded      by      Hutchin.son, 
158;  letters  to  England,  101, 
198 
Hernard,    Nat,   Captain  of  the 

Liberty,  184 
Billeting  Act,  ».e  Mutiny  Act 
Bleinville.  tee  C^loron  de  Blain- 

ville 
Bland,  Richard,  06,  71,  74 
Boston,  Stamp  Act  riots,  83-86; 
Custom*    Commis.sioners    at, 
184:  liberty  aUxip  rial,  184-86; 
regiments    arrive    in    (1768), 
186-87;  Massacre  (1770).  187- 
188;    town  meeting  demands 
removal  of  troops.  188;  mer- 
chants  enter  non-importation 
agreement.  139;  Hutchinson's 
account  of  go\ernment.  173- 
174;    town   meeting,    174-75; 
tea  party,  199,  80C;  Port  Bill, 
807.  888 
lionlnn  Gazette,  81.  188 
Brattle.  James,  833 


861 


262 


INDEX 


" British- \mcrican  Parliament," 

plan  fcr,  816 
Burke,  Edmund,  on  passing  of 

Stamp  Act,  48-49;  opinion  of 

Townshend,  118 
Bute,     Lord,      resi,'niation      as 

premier,  10  (note) 

Camden,  Lord,  103 

Canada,  Franklin  urges  England 
to  retain,  5;  question  of  re- 
taining, 53,  54 

"Caucus  Club,"  159 

"Caulkers'  Club,"  158 

Celoron  de  Blainville,  32-33 

Chase,  Samuel,  237 

Chase,  Thomas,  83 

Chatham,  Earl  of,  see  Pitt 

Cockle,  James,  Collector  of  Cus- 
toms fcr  the  port  of  Salem,  20 

Coercive  Acts,  207,  222 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of  N.  Y.,  87-88 

Colonies,  governors  urge  re- 
.  forms,  21-22;  defense  of,  29 
et  seq.;  lack  of  cooperation 
among,  37;  relation  of  assem- 
blies and  governors,  38;  popu- 
lation, 50-51;  wealth,  51-52; 
trade,  53-55;  governors,  58- 
61;  legislative  independence, 
131;  ace  also  Army,  Commerce, 
Conciliation,  Taxation,  and 
colonies  by  name 

Commerce,  trade  with  West 
Indies,  26,  28;  increase  (1748- 
60),  54;  colonial  merchants 
agree  to  non-importation,  139- 
140;  London  merchants  peti- 
tion Parliament,  141;  effects 
of  non-importation  agreement, 
143-47 

Conciliation,  Galloway's  plan, 
216;  Pitt's  plan,  221-22; 
North's  plan,  223-24,  231; 
Dickinson  advises  petition, 
233-35;  Great  Britain  to 
make  concessions,  239 

Concord  (Mass.),  battle,  229-30 


Continental  Congress,  first, 
Mass.  delegates,  201;  reasons 
for  calling,  201-08;  non-im- 
portation question,  213-15; 
question  of  authority,  214; 
"Suffolk  Resolves,"  215-16, 
217;  conciliation  plan  rejected, 
216;  dissensions  m,  217;  Dec- 
laration of  Rights,  218;  Asso- 
ciation, 219-20;  accomplish- 
ments, 220;  adjourns,  220 

Continental  Congress,  second, 
meets,  225;  moderate  men  in, 
231;  Dickinson's  petition,  233- 
235;  raises  army,  235;  Declara- 
tion of  the  Causes  and  Necessity 
of  Taking  up  Arms,  235-36; 
question  of  war  or  reconcilia- 
tion, 237  et  seq.;  opens  porta, 
243-44;  idea  of  independence. 
245-56 

Conway,  H.  S.,  presents  bill  for 
repeal  of  Stamp  Act,  108 

Curling,  Captain,  205 

Cushing,  Thomas,  200 

Customs,  colonial  duties,  24  ct 
seq.;  Townshend  duties,  123; 
Board  of  Commissioners,  124; 
Liberty  sloop  riot,  124-26; 
protest  agamst  Townshend 
duties,  131  et  seq.;  duties  re- 
pealed except  on  tea,  142-43, 
148-49 

Dartmouth,  Earl  of,  opinion 
of  first  Continental  Congress, 
220;  petition  presented  to,  242 

Dawes,  William,  229 

De  Berdt,  Dennys,  134 

Declaration  of  Independence, 
245, 253-56 

Declaration  of  Rights,  218 

Declaratory  Act,  114 

Delaware,  on  question  of  in- 
dependence, 252,  253 

Dickinson,  John,  quoted,  98; 
Farmer's  Letters,  131-34;  on 
conduct  of  East  India  Com- 
pany,   204-05;    advise     con- 


■rl 


INDEX 


263 


Dickinson,  John — Continued 
ciliation     petition    to    KiuK, 
iS3-35;  for  conciliation,  24.'J; 
attitude  toward  independence. 

Dowdeswell,  Willi;vm,  liO 
Duane.  James,  211,  iU,  iSi 
Dulaney,  Daniel,  Considerations 
on  the  Propriety  of  Imporinr 
Taxes  on  the  British  Colo  ■<  -i, 
108  (note).  113-14 

East  India  Company,  Gov  rn- 
ment  suggests  taking  i  r 
possessions,  117;  sends  tea  to 
colonies,  199,  iOi-Od 

England,  of  Franklin's  day,  4-3, 
7;  sinecures  in,  12  et  seq. 

Finance,  revenues  from  Americ-a, 
16;  debt  of  England,  18,  2;); 
taxes,  23-24;  wlouial  cus- 
toms. 24  et  seq.;  Stamp  Tax, 
39  et  seq.;  plan  to  take  over 
possessions  of  East  India 
t'orapany,  117;  land  tax,  120; 
Townshend  duties.  123-24; 
Dickinson  distinguishes  \>e- 
tween  kinds  of  duties,  l.')l-34; 
reasons  for  decay  of  business 
in  New  York,  144-46;  see  also 
Customs,  Taxation 
Fleming,  John,  70 
Fox,  C.  J.,  quoted,  208 
France     cedes     possessions     to 

England,  30 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  commis- 
sioned to  London  by  Assembly 
of  Fa.  (1757).  1-2;  delays  go- 
ing to  accommodate  Loudoun, 
2-3;  journeys  to  London,  4; 
pamphlet  urging  retention  of 
Canada,  5;  opinion  of  colonial 
loyalty,  5;  life  in  England, 
6-7;  returns  to  Philadelphia, 
8;  desires  to  return  to  Eng- 
land, 8-10;  opinion  as  to 
relations  between  Britain  and 
colonies,  10-11;  Flan  of  Union 


rejected.  37;  description  of 
American  attitude  toward  de- 
fense, 38;  as  colonial  agent, 
41-45;  on  righU  of  colonics, 
5t>;  The  Increase  of  Mankind 
■  .  ,  51;  The  Interest  of  Great 
BtUain  Considered,  54;  ojiinion 
of  Stamp  Act,  65;  opinion 
t."  to  union  of  colonies,  78; 
rx;-niiu«-'!  in  Parliament  on 
ta;i  qu'.::,t  on,  104-07;  opinion 
of  ri5,'li  of  Parliament  in  the 
<  olf.nie;  ,  137-38;  letters  to 
fi  ;.t  Continental  Congress, 
21i,  .17;  Pitt  discusses  con- 
ciliation plan  with,  221;  con- 
sulted as  to  North's  concilia- 
tion plan,  222-23;  votes  for 
inde[)endence,  233 

Friends  of  Liberty  and  Trade, 
147 

Fur-trade,  27 

Gadsden,    Christopher,    quoted. 

80 
Gage,    Thomas,    General,    199, 

207,  208,  229,  230 
(ialloway,  Joseph,  at  first  Con- 
tinental   Congress,    214,    215; 
conciliation     plan,     216;     in 
second  Continental  Congress. 
232 
George     III,     attitude     toward 
Stamp  Act,  99  et  seq;  quoted, 
200 
Georgia  unrepresented  in  Stamp 

Act  Congress,  79 
Gordon,  William,  quoted,  74 
Grenville.  George,  I'remier.  13; 
character,  15;  letter  to  Wal- 
pole,  16;  government  efficiency, 
17;  interest  in  revenue,  19-20; 
content  with  colonial  govern- 
ments, 22;  budget,  23-29; 
plan  of  colonial  defense.  39; 
plans  stamp  tax,  40-41;  an- 
swers colonial  agents  concern- 
ing sUmp  tax,  42;  postpones 
stamp  tax,  43;  consults  Frank- 


264 


INDEX 


:M 


Grenville,  Georgt—ContiHued 
lin,  44-45;  perfects  stamp 
tax  plan,  45-46;  quoted,  98; 
dismissed  from  ministry,  100, 
101;  leader  of  Opposition,  102 
-103,119 

Gridley,  Jeremiah,  91,  167 

Guadeloupe,  5,  53,  54 

Halifax,  Earl  of,  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, 21,  22 

Ilallowell,  Benjamin,  81 

Hancock,  John,  defies  Stamp 
Act,  95;  celebrates  repeal  of 
Stamp  Act,  98;  Liberty  sloop 
riot,  124-26;  during  period  of 
waning  enthusiasm,  152,  153; 
relations  with  Samuel  Adams, 
179;  in  Mass.  Assembly,  193, 
196;  violation  of  non-importa- 
tion agreement,  203 

Hawley,  Major,  185,  213 

Henry,  Patrick,  in  House  of 
Burgesses  (1765),  67;  per- 
sonal characteristics,  69-70; 
for  Virginia  Resolutions,  7i, 
72,  73;  in  first  Continental 
Congress,  212.  214 

HiIlslM>rough,  Earl  of,  advises 
against  Stamp  Act,  40;  cen- 
sures Mass.  circular  letter, 
131,  142,  164-65 

Howe,  Richard,  Earl,  Admiral, 
222 

Hughes,  John,  65 

Hume,  David,  Franklin  corre- 
sponds with,  6;  quoted,  7 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  165 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  on  colonial 
rights,  56-58;  in  Stamp  Act 
riot,  84-85;  adjourns  Boston 
superior  court,  91;  orders 
troops  to  retire  from  Boston, 
128-29;  made  Governor  of 
Mass.,  152-53;  quoted.  150; 
life  and  character.  165-70; 
ideas  of  lil)erty,  170-74;  re- 
lations with  Samuel  Adams, 
175   et   seq.;    letters,    193-95, 


196-98;  History  of  Maaaachu- 
tetts  Bay,  195;  leaves  for  Eng- 
land. 199 

Indians,  side  with  big  battalions, 

33-34;  reservations,  35-36 
Ingersoll.  Jared,  65.  82,  98 

Jackson,  Grenville's  secretary, 
40,46 

Jay,  John,  210,  233,  240 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  in  Hous<>  of 
Burgesses,  71;  quoted,  200; 
drafts  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, 253-56 

Jenkinson,  Charles,  British  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  39 

Jcnyns,  Soame,  on  Stamp  Act, 
109-13 

Johnson,  Conn,  agent,  151, 176 

Johnston,  George,  70,  71 

Kames,   Lord,   Franklin    corre- 
sponds with,  6 
Kirk,  Thomas,  124,  125 

La    Galissoni^re,    Marquis    de, 

acting  Governor  of  Canada,  32 
Lamb,  John,  94.  146 
Lee,  Arthur,  187,  242 
Lee,  R.  H.,  65-66,  212,  251 
Lexington,  Battle  of,  229-30 
Liberty  sloop  riot,  124-26 
Livingston,  Philip.  87-90,  211. 

239 
Loudoun.   Earl  of,    commander 

of  forces  in  America,  2,  3,  4 
Low,  Isaac.    N.  Y.  deputy  to 

Continental   Congress.     210, 

215 

M'Culloh,  of  North  Carolina.  39 
MacDougall,     Alexander,     140, 

147,  210 
Mansfield,  Lord,  103,  107.  109 
Marshall.  James,  124,  125 
Marshall,  Thomas.  67 
Maryland,  effect  of  non-importa- 
tion agreement,  140 


INDEX 


265 


Massachusetts,  protests  against 
Sugar  Act  and  Stamp  Act, 
61-«4;  yields  to  acts  granting 
duties,  65;  proposes  Stamp 
Act  Congress,  7s  79;  censured 
for  circular  lett  r  by  Hills- 
borough, 130-31;  Suffolk  Re- 
solves. «15-16;  Parliament 
claims  right  to  alter  charter, 
2x2-23;  Provincial  Congress, 
228;  see  also  Boston 

Mauduit,  Jasper,  Mass.  agent,  24 

Mayhew,  Jonathan,  85 

Minerva.  The  (ship),  109 

Molasses  Act  (17S3),  28 

Morris,  Robert,  253 

Morton,  253 

Mutiny  Act,  39 

Navigation    and    Trade    acts, 

28-29 
New   Jersey    declines    to    send 
delegate  to  Stamp  Act  Con- 
gress, 79 

New  York,  Stamp  Act  Congress, 
79-80;  stamp  riots  in,  87-9(); 
Assembly  refuses  to  abide  by 
Quartering  Act,  122;  merchants 
agree  on  non-importation, 
139;  effect  of  non-importation 
agreement,  140;  decay  of 
business,  144-46;  permitted  to 
issue  Bills  of  Credit,  148;  non- 
importation agreement  set 
aside,  148;  tea  not  ♦■  '  im- 
ported, 148-49;  vc.  '•>- 
dependence,  252,  25;, 

Newfoundland      fisherie  .j. 

hibited  to  colonies,  22^ 

Newport  Mercury,  75 

Nicholas,  R.  C,  66,  76 

Non-im,.  ,rtation,  agreements, 
139,  results,  140-41,  144-46; 
London  merchants  protest, 
141;  discontinued,  148-49; 
Association  of  1774,  219-20, 
225-26,  241 

Non-intercourse,  239 

North,  Lord,  sought  by  P"       a 


replace  Townshend,  121;  pro- 
poses partial  repeal  of  Town- 
snend  duties,  129;  Resolution 
on  Conciliation,  223  et  seq. 
North  Carolina,  effect  of  non- 
importation agreement,  140 

Ohio  Company,  32.  34 

Oliver,  Andrew,  82-84,  91,  198 

Otis,  James,  Jr.,  on  parliamen- 
tary rights,  65;  on  Virginia 
Resolutions,  77;  and  Stamp 
Act  question,  91;  Rights  oj  the 
British  Colonies  Asserted  and 
Proved.  113;  in  1770,  152; 
aids  father  in  soliciting  chief- 
justiceship,  167;  a  leader  in 
Boston,  175;  deserts  Adams, 
179 

Otis,  James,  Sr.,  and  chiet- 
justiceship,  167 

Paine,  R.  T.,  200 

Paine,  Thomas,  Common  Sense. 
247-51 

Paris,  Peace  of,  10 

Parson's  Cause,  69 

Pendleton,  Edmund,  66,  71,  74 

Penn,  Richard,  242 

Pennsylvania,  effect  of  non-im- 
portation agreements,  140;  on 
question  of  independence,  252 

Philadelphia  merchants'  atti- 
tude toward  non-importa- 
tion, 139 

Pitt,  William,  ministry,  5;  and 
colonies,  30,  38.  40;  refuses  to 
succeed  Granville,  101;  in  be- 
half of  America,  103-04;  refers 
to  Dulaney's  pamphlet,  108 
(note);  becomes  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham and  Prime  Minister,  115- 
121;  conciliation  plan,  221-22 

Pontiao  uprising,  36 

PownaD,  Thomas,  Administra- 
tion of  the  Colonies,  49 

Preparedness,  policy  of,  31 

Preston,  Thomas,  Captain,  129 


266 


INDEX 


Proclamation  of  1763,  35 
rrohibitory  Act.  «4«,  «43 

Quartering  Act,  39,  114 
Quincy,  Josiah,  129 

Randolph,  Peter,  Colonel,  72 

Randolph.  Peyton,  in  ilouse  of 
OurfTisses,  60;  and  Virginia 
RestiUtions,  71,  72,  73,  74,  76 

Revere,  Paul,  229 

Rigby,  Pilaster  of  the  RoUr  in 
Ireland,  18-19 

Robinson,  John,  66,  69 

Rockingham.  Marquis  of.  Prime 
Minuter,  101,  102;  and  repeal 
of  SUmp  Act.  107-08;  Pitt 
succeeds,  115 

Rodney,  Caesar,  252 

Romney,  The  (ship),  125,  126 

Rutledge,  Edward,  213,  214.  220 

Sandwich,  Lord,  222 

Seabury,  Samuel,  Wenlchester 
Farmer,  226,  227.  245 

Seville,  Sir  George,  104 

Sewell,  Jonathan,  opinion  of 
Virginia  Resolutions,  76-77 

Shelburne.  Earl  of,  107.  119 

Sherman,  Roger,  244 

Smith,  Francis,  Colonel,  229,  230 

Smith,  William,  of  N.  Y.,  quoted, 
52 

Sons  of  Liberty,  82,  9i,  98-97, 
146, 151 

South  Carolina,  unrepresented 
,n  Stamp  Act  Congress,  79; 
eifect  of  non-importation 
agreement,  140 

Stamp  Act,  proposed,  39-41; 
reception  of  proposal,  41; 
Grenville  argues  for,  42;  post- 
ponement of,  43;  Franklin 
consulted,  44-45;  provisions, 
45;  discussion  in  Parliament, 
46-48;  passed,  48;  Virginia 
Resolutions,  70-77;  Congress, 
78-81,  88;  resisted  in  iMsiun, 
82-86;  rioting  in  N.  Y.,  87- 


90;  Sons  of  Liberty.  Qi-OA; 
repealed,  98  et  aeq. 

Stevenson,  Mary,  8 

Storv,  William,  84 

Strahan,  William,  7,  8 

Suflfolk  Resolves,  215  16.  217. 
227 

Sugar  Act  (1764).  28;  burden- 
some to  colonies.  56;  protest 
in  Mass..  61-64;  memorial 
against.  67;  modified,  114 

Taxation,  on  colonies,  24-25,  27- 
29,  39  et  aeq.;  parliamentary 
right.  56-58,  65,  106.  130;  and 
representation.  81.  110-11; 
internal  and  external.  106. 
109.  119.  123;  see  also  Cus- 
toms. Stamp  Act.  Sugar  Act. 
Townshend  duties 

Temple.  Earl.  101 

Toovey.  Sampson,  statement  of. 
20 

Townshend.  Charles,  Lo' J  of  (;he 
Treasury,  21,  39;  speech  on 
Stamp  Av^t,  47;  qjuestions 
Franklin,  106;  opinio  i  of 
internal  and  external  taxes, 
109,  130;  Paymaster  of  the 
Forces,  115;  as  Chancellor  of 
Exchequer,  116,  117;  Stamp 
Act,  118-19;  with  Opposition, 
120-21;  colonial  policy,  122- 
124,  130 

Townshend  duties,  123;  opposi* 
tion  to,  124  et  seq.;  partial 
repeal,  142-43 

Tucker,  Josiah,  206 

Tudor,  Deacon,  quoted,  84.  86 

Mrginia,  aristocracy  of.  66; 
Burgesses  protest  against 
Sugar  Act.  67;  against  Stamp 
Act.  70-76;  unrepresented  in 
Stamp  Act  Congress.  79;  effect 
of  non-importation  agreement, 
140 

Virginia  Resolutions.  71-77 


H-- 


3    %       ■ 


INDEX 


267 


Walpole,  Horace,  quoted.  5.  li; 

.itron     of     Iledford,     13-15; 

optimism  of,  150 
Walpole,  Robert.  13.  Si 
Warren.  James,  i36 
Warren,  Dr.  Joseph.  185.  Hi) 
Wushiogton,  George,  i35 


West  Indies,  sugar  planters  re- 

presenteti  in  Parliament,  iG 
Wilson,  James,  253 
Writs  of  assistance,  77  (note) 
Wythe,  George,  (10, 71, 74. 70,  iU 

Zubly,  J.  J..  ie37-a» 


